A new national campaign to encourage investments in redeveloping lower-income communities includes two Wisconsin groups

A new national campaign to encourage investments in redeveloping lower-income communities includes two Wisconsin groups.

The Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. and the Madison-based Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority are part of Accelerating Community Investment.

That campaign is designed to encourage philanthropies and others to invest in community and economic development, housing and other areas that benefit society.

The initiative will build relationships between public finance officials, investors, financial institutions and communities to focus on those areas, according to a statement from its sponsors: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the F.B. Heron Foundation.

Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. is a nonprofit business lender affiliated with the City of Milwaukee. 

Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is an independent state-created authority that focuses on helping finance affordable housing.

“Deepening the skills of public finance practitioners and creating connections with impact investors will help to drive investments that improve the quality of life in underserved communities across the country,” said Robert J. "R.J." McGrail, senior research fellow for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Lincoln Institute and director of the initiative.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.