At Bank of America, we have a long-standing commitment to support economic opportunity for people and communities. It’s critical to how we drive Responsible Growth by delivering for our teammates, clients and shareholders and addressing society’s biggest challenges.
Supporting economic opportunity
We have worked broadly in these areas for many years. Internally, this is core to being a great place to work, hiring and recruiting diverse talent to ensure strong representation in our workforce, and aligned policies and accountabilities. Externally, this is core to our client-driven approach, delivering products and services that meet the diverse needs of our clients, and investing our resources to support our communities and the issues affecting them.
Our Neighborhood Builders® program is one of the largest investments into nonprofit leadership development in the nation, providing funding and leadership training to nonprofits that are advancing economic mobility and building up underserved neighborhoods.
Meet the Neighborhood Builders® making a difference
A partner for progress
We’re focused on building financial security and wealth across diverse communities through a comprehensive approach that includes delivering products and services that meet the needs of all clients, and investing resources to support our communities and the issues that affect them. This includes our work to connect more individuals and families to affordable housing and home ownership, capital to start and grow small businesses, good jobs with living wages and better access to healthcare.
In order to drive real progress, we recognize that we share in the responsibility to do more. We also know we can’t solve these challenges alone, so we’re partnering with other corporations, local nonprofits and community leaders across the country who share our vision for creating meaningful change. We are invested in this work, just as we are invested in the communities we serve every day. We do this not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is critical to how we drive Responsible Growth.
The urgency we feel to address long-standing issues of inclusion and racial inequality has only increased. Across the public and private sectors, it is clear that we must do more – to take action, help others convene, and serve as a catalyst for a broad-based, collective response to the critical issues affecting our nation.
Driving change for good
We know that as a bank, we can empower people in their personal and professional lives. We support economic opportunity in all communities, inclusive of diverse communities. We are doing this by building upon our existing efforts and leveraging our strengths: creating more affordable housing and expanding home ownership, increasing lending and support to minority-owned small businesses, championing job training and career readiness and addressing health disparities like access to care.
Jobs and career training
Access to a quality education and skills training are critical to competing for better jobs. As part of our commitment to supporting economic opportunity for diverse people and communities, we’ve invested $25 million to advance reskilling and upskilling of students through partnerships with employers and 21 historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and community colleges. These partnerships ensure that coursework directly prepares students for specific hiring needs. By addressing skill gaps, these institutions will boost students of color toward higher-paying, family-sustaining jobs.
Creating access to jobs
To help create jobs and fuel economic opportunity, we're partnering with local organizations and other companies to help people get the skills they need and build a growing pipeline of talent for jobs of the future.
More jobs for the Navajo Nation
With degree programs and internships, this New Mexico University is preparing indigenous students for careers.
A Career In Tech, No Degree Required
Watch how skills training brought three young people into the tech job market - and learn about the organizations that helped them start on a path to financial security and career satisfaction.
Expanding homeownership and affordable housing
Access to affordable housing and the ability to purchase a home are foundational to economic prosperity and the building of generational wealth. Our $15 billion Community Homeownership Commitment offers grants to help homebuyers make a down payment and pay closing costs on a home purchase. The program also provides low down payment, fixed-rate loans to new homebuyers. Through this work, we’ve helped over 30,000 individuals and families purchase a home through affordable loans. This is just a start, our goal is to enable 60,000 individuals and families to purchase a home by 2025.
We are also accelerating investments in affordable rental housing developments in under-resourced communities, making early equity and debt investments of close to $5 billion per year to develop affordable housing units.
An historic Houston neighborhood on the rebound
See how the once-thriving Fifth Ward is reversing decades of decline through developing places and opportunities for people to live, work and play.
Working to address affordable housing in Austin
See how we’re working with several organizations in the Greater Austin area to mitigate housing insecurity and finance affordable housing projects.
Fulfilling the dream of home ownership
See how community lending programs and local partnerships helped make affordable housing a reality for a Tampa, FL resident.
Business ownership
Decades of limited access to financial resources have left entrepreneurs across diverse communities with fewer opportunities to start a business. Addressing this gap requires significant change. That’s why we’re investing $350 million in funds for all, including minority- and women-led companies, through capital investment by mission focused venture funds. These funds help owners establish and grow their businesses, create jobs and improve financial stability in local communities across the country. They also connect business owners to new groups of potential advisors and mentors, and new customers and investors, that ultimately help their businesses thrive. We expect our growing portfolio of funds to invest in 2,000+ minority- and women-led companies over the next five years.
Asian American entrepreneurs: lessons in resilience and recovery
Why many Asian American business owners value the power of family — and the positive impact it has on communities.
On course to empower women business owners
A partnership with Cornell University is helping more women flourish as entrepreneurs.
Building an engine of economic growth
Downtown Madison’s new Black Business Hub aims to empower local entrepreneurs — and help close the region’s opportunity gap
Access to healthcare
When communities have greater access to healthcare, they also see lower unemployment rates and higher incomes. That’s why we’ve had a longstanding focus on basic needs addressing the economic and social conditions that influence an individual’s health. This includes local giving across more than 95 markets, a partnership with CVS Health to deliver free flu vaccine vouchers to underserved communities, work with Feeding America and local food banks, and supporting mental health initiatives for young people of color. Now, in collaboration with the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society and the University of Michigan School of Public Health, we’ve launched a new signature initiative to advance health and wellness for under-resourced communities.
A collaborative model for improving community healthcare
San Francisco's largest public hospital has developed a ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach to help patients who deal with both homelessness and mental health issues.
Job training for a healthier community
Faced with an aging population and a shortage of medical professionals, this Southern California nursing school is stepping up to help.
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Advancing access to health care
Learn about our new $25 million, four-year initiative to advance health and wellness for under-resourced communities.
Our impact
We are helping address society's challenges through partnerships that bring together leaders from business, government, and the nonprofit and academic worlds. Together, we can continue to drive progress and create more opportunity for diverse people and communities.
Exhibit Item 1 of 10
$500 million
Committed to 150+ funds that will invest in more than 2,000 minority- and women-led companies over the next five years.
Exhibit Item 2 of 10
$360 million
in philanthropic investments to drive economic mobility in the communities we serve, including workforce development and jobs, community development and affordable housing, and access to healthcare.
Exhibit Item 3 of 10
$44 million
committed to 23 minority deposit institutions (MDI) and community development financial institutions (CDFI) banks supporting minority-owned businesses.
Exhibit Item 4 of 10
21 partners
across higher education institutions focused on skills training and employer upskilling for Black and Hispanic students.
Exhibit Item 5 of 10
30 years
of our formal Supplier Diversity & Responsible Sourcing Program, which supports diverse-owned suppliers — and we spend close to $2 billion with diverse suppliers each year.
Exhibit Item 6 of 10
100,000+
women entrepreneurs (90% of whom identify as women of color) enrolled in Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell.
Exhibit Item 7 of 10
$15 billion
commitment to help more than 60,000 individuals and families purchase affordable homes.
Exhibit Item 8 of 10
$60 million
to increase access and career opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) affordable housing developers.
Exhibit Item 9 of 10
$10 million
grant to support the Center for Black Entrepreneurship, in partnership with Spelman and Morehouse colleges and the Black Economic Alliance.
Exhibit Item 10 of 10
$2 billion
two Equality Progress Sustainability Bonds. The use of proceeds from these bond offerings are designed to advance racial and gender equality, economic opportunity and environmental sustainability.
Delivering for Clients and Employees
We provide access to a wide range of products and services that are designed to meet the different needs of our diverse client base, including low-to-moderate income communities and clients looking to invest in responsible companies. As an employer, we continue to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for our associates and their families, and work constantly to expand our talent pool and work with diverse suppliers.
Our ongoing commitment
We view this work as key to our role in society. It’s fundamental to how we run our company, support our teammates and deliver for clients. We firmly believe that as a financial institution it is our responsibility and part of our daily course of business to help to make financial lives better and improve the fabric of America.