Our Strategies

By investing in the owners, employees, businesses, and organizations in historically disadvantaged communities, we amplify the strength and success of the whole area. Our goal: create equitable systems connected to the regional economy where everyone can access quality jobs, affordable capital, and the tools and know-how to achieve their goals.

Fueling equitable progress requires community ownership and local leadership. Because of our local relationships in thousands of communities, LISC is able to stand side-by-side with residents, business owners, and local leaders to identify goals, design projects, and deliver results like workforce upskilling, strong support networks for entrepreneurs, and vibrant commercial and industrial districts.

At LISC, economic development is more than an isolated project or short-term plan. We focus on specific geographies that have experienced systemic disinvestment and may be facing uneven development activity. It means we can better address unique local realities, coordinate local plans and funding opportunities, and better connect communities to their regional economies.

A core element of LISC’s work is to share proven strategies and powerful tools with the people getting things done in our communities. We strengthen local networks of collaboration and provide access to training, experts, and resources so that entrepreneurs, community leaders, policymakers, and local organizations can drive economic opportunity in the places that need it most.

Small businesses are the heart of local economies. They deliver vital goods and services to residents and are engines for employment, driving approximately two-thirds of job growth nationally over the last two decades. LISC connects entrepreneurs to the right kind of capital and management services—focusing on businesses and business owners in historically underinvested communities.

People need access to quality jobs with wages that can sustain families. LISC’s economic development efforts support job creation in communities that need them most and links for residents to obtain these jobs. LISC has built career training pathways in partnership with local workforce development partners so residents can gain the skills they need to participate in growth industries and raise their incomes.