Since 1988, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has collaborated with local and national stakeholders to invest in Kalamazoo County, contributing over $140 million in outside investment in Kalamazoo’s core neighborhoods in the form of grants, low-income tax credits, new market tax credits, small business lending capital, and federal and state funding. As a comprehensive Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), LISC works across sectors to address the interconnected factors that influence inequality of opportunity.

LISC’s comprehensive programmatic approach combines people and place-based efforts, which we conduct with and through a local network of community-based partners, with the ultimate goal of making Kalamazoo County a great place to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. We do this by:
• strengthening existing alliances while building new collaborations to increase our impact on the progress of people and places;
• developing leadership and the capacity of partners to advance our work together;
• equipping talent in underinvested communities with the skills and credentials to compete successfully for quality income and wealth opportunities;
• investing in businesses, housing and other community infrastructure to catalyze economic, health, safety and educational mobility; and
• driving local, regional, and national policy and system changes that foster broadly shared prosperity and well-being.

In 2022, LISC leveraged local support to secure $8 million in additional resources for Kalamazoo County.

For more information, visit www.lisc.org/kalamazoo