July Newsletter
Accelerator for America is 20 months old. We are now engaged all across America.
Accelerator for America launched in November 2017 in South Bend, IN. We were hosted by Mayor Pete Buttigieg at his city’s historic Studebaker plant -- and we had no idea our inaugural meeting was where a presidential campaign would launch. But we did know that millions of Americans are being left behind, and that amidst federal dysfunction and inaction, our country needs a catalytic organization to scale and replicate local solutions to make people’s lives better.
Today, 35 cities from across America have harnessed our Opportunity Zone toolkit to develop Investment Prospectuses to attract billions of dollars to their most underserved communities. And thanks to a $1 million partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we will be deeply engaged with 50 cities by the end of the year.
Our March Opportunity Zone Summit at Stanford University attracted more than 400 leaders from the government, investment and non-profit sectors, and since then we have organized and participated in local and regional Opportunity Zone summits in Kansas City, MO; Waterloo, IA; Chicago, IL; and Newark, NJ. Our next stops are Birmingham, AL and Erie, PA.
We have helped generate $9 billion in local infrastructure funding to improve communities and create lasting middle-class careers. And we have identified $110 billion in local infrastructure funding that the Accelerator will seek to advance during the next election cycle. Next week, we'll be meeting with mayors from across Michigan to discuss opportunities there.
And we are just getting started.
Watch us at work in Birmingham, AL
Read the Accelerator and Mastercard's OpEd in US News & World Report
Read about our work in Waterloo, IA
Read about our coming placements of "dealmakers" in California's Inland Empire and Central Valley -- and help us find candidates for those and other positions through our partners at FUSE Corps.
Thanks for all of your support, and we'll soon be in touch again. In the meantime, keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.