One Year On The Job: Gustavo's Reflections & Hopes for 2025

Dear Friends,

I'm interrupting what I hope is a warm and peaceful holiday season to share some end of year reflections with you all.

Today I am celebrating my one-year mark as Executive Director here at LISC Massachusetts. And what a year it’s been! 

I have to thank our amazing team here for helping us reach numerous achievements across our program areas: We exceeded our affordable housing lending goal, supported nearly 100 small businesses access capital & technical assistance, and secured historic funding to advance housing decarbonization projects, among other successes. And our efforts to expand our strategic impact across Massachusetts are gaining serious traction.

We know the coming year will include many serious challenges that we'll need to face together, in our local communities, across the state, and across our country.

But in 2025, we’ll continue our work to forge strong, resilient, and inclusive communities of opportunity across every corner of the Commonwealth. And we'll remain laser focused on the ways we can effect change to tackle the state's most pressing and persistent community development challenges: building more affordable housing, growing a more equitable economy to close the racial wealth gap, and preparing communities for climate change.

As we look ahead to the new year, I hope you'll join us in this effort - as partners, collaborators, and yes, as funders of our work.

In the remaining days of 2024, we hope you'll support our work with a meaningful contribution that fuels our work in community

(Don't forget: The MA CITC** is a 50% tax credit on your donation to LISC,
doubling the impact of your generosity!)

Your support with a donation or as a Sponsor of Story Slam will enable us to achieve meaningful impact in 2025. Our goals include:

• Supporting 90+ under-served entrepreneurs grow their small business through our Digital Growth Accelerator program
• Investing $375,000 in historically marginalized small businesses with our Growth Capital Fund
• Training 25 more residents in the green jobs of our state's growing climate economy across 2 new Gateway City training sites
• Hosting 6 Energy Cohort sessions open to our 500+ members to access Green Homes education + technical assistance 
• Achieving 3 MW of new solar installations via the STAR Solar Program and deploying $16M in funds for deep energy retrofits via Climate Ready Housing
• Lending over $2M to build and preserve affordable housing all over Massachusetts — including leading national efforts to deploy LISC's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund award's low-cost capital for green housing investments

These are big, ambitious goals for 2025! We know we can hit the mark and even go further, but we need your partnership to make it happen.

As you consider supporting LISC Massachusetts, remember that your donation of $1,000 or more qualifies for a 50% refundable MA tax creditwith the Massachusetts Community Investment Tax Credit (CITC)** — doubling the impact of your generosity! 

And, as we gear up for our 6th Annual Story Slam event on April 30th, 2025, we invite our partners to join us as a Sponsor of this inspiring event and all of you to mark your calendars!

Thank you for your support and partnership in my first year at LISC Massachusetts.

We have a lot of work to do together in the new year. Until then, I hope you and your family enjoy a warm and healthy holiday season filled with peace and happiness.

Best,
Gustavo

Gustavo Quiroga
Executive Director
LISC Massachusetts