I had the opportunity to represent one of our recent New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) projects — the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Educare — at the National Development Council (NDC) Academy in Washington, D.C., this spring. NDC is the oldest national nonprofit community development organization in the United States, and its annual academy brings together attendees to learn about innovative community development projects from the people who made them happen.
NDC chose the Winnebago Educare project from many submissions to be displayed with other projects across four different categories: community development, creative financing, job creation, and housing development. We chose creative financing as its category because the use of New Markets Tax Credits brought both public and private resources to the table to finance the construction of the Educare building. The partnership that enabled the NMTC transaction included the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Chase Community Development Banking, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, and the Educare Replication Pool, which includes grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
It was a great opportunity to showcase a project that is the first of its kind in Indian Country.
As a part of the academy, NDC encouraged participants to reach out to their senators and representatives to share with them about projects we’ve completed, and to advocate for continued funding for the federal programs that help to finance these projects. We were all briefed on current legislative developments and sent out.
I “climbed the Hill” to talk about the NMTC program in Indian Country, and Bryan Schuler, our development director, joined to talk about Native American housing issues.
We had a great time in Washington, D.C., and have lots of photos to share.
