Npower, Baltimore Community Lending 2020 named BoA Neighborhood Builders

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NPower and Baltimore Community Lending (BCL) have been named as the 2020 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders awardees for Greater Maryland, it was announced Thursday.

The nonprofits were selected for their work in the Baltimore community to address issues fundamental to economic mobility, specifically launching digital careers for military veterans and young adults and revitalizing underserved Baltimore neighborhoods through innovative and flexible financial assistance designed to promote community development.

As an awardee, each organization receives a $200,000 grant, a year of leadership training for the executive director and an emerging leader, a network of peer organizations across the U.S., and the opportunity to access capital to expand their impact. Since 2004, Bank of America has invested over $260 million in 50 communities through Neighborhood Builders, partnering with more than 1,300 nonprofits and helping more than 2,600 nonprofit leaders strengthen their leadership skills.

The two selected nonprofits, NPower and BCL, create pathways to economic prosperity for underserved communities. NPower launches digital careers for military veterans and young adults from marginalized communities through education and professional and career development. BCL is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides loan capital to small real estate developers and small business owners committed to developing underserved neighborhoods with the goal of creating a more diverse and economically balanced Baltimore.

The Neighborhood Builders program is an opportunity to provide relevant skills development and topics to help nonprofit leaders address current and future community challenges. Each year, Bank of America refines the Neighborhood Builders Leadership Program to include topics ranging from strategic storytelling to human capital management, and highlights themes that are critical to moving the nonprofit sector forward within broader societal and economic context.

Having served more than 300 young people in the Baltimore region, Parlock said that the award will catalyze NPower’s efforts to train and launch careers in tech for more youth from under resourced communities and support expansion to serve military veterans.

Since 2004, through its Neighborhood Builders program, Bank of America has partnered with 27 nonprofits in Baltimore, investing $5.4 million to provide economic mobility opportunities within the Baltimore area. The invitation-only program is highly competitive, and leading members of the community including: Alma Roberts, Kaiser Permanente; Sara Muempfer, The Annie E Casey Foundation; Sara Johnson, CASH Campaign of Maryland; Destiney-Simone Ramjohn, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; and Darius Graham, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, participated in a collaborative selection process to identify this year’s awardees. Examples of the leadership training topics include human capital management, increasing financial sustainability, and storytelling. Neighborhood Builders is just one example of how Bank of America deploys capital in communities, builds cross-sector partnerships, and promotes socioeconomic progress as part of its approach to responsible growth.