Opportunity Zones provide three benefits with respect to local community and economic development.
They offer an ability to act as a convening agent for a diverse array of stakeholders in thinking about community-level investments.
Opportunity Zones additionally provide a tax incentive for capital gains.
They also provide preferential consideration in federal grants, loans, and technical assistance programs.
In this talk, head of the Economic Innovation Group, John Lettieri, talks about the "forgotten zip codes" across America, and how Opportunity Zones can allow them to thrive. John's career in public policy has included time in both the public and private sectors working with a diverse set of policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and global business leaders.
Communities have seen all three of these benefits leveraged in a variety of ways to support a multitude of projects, from affordable housing and healthcare to small business development and renewable energy.
For communities to achieve the maximum benefit from the Opportunity Zone program, states and investors must be committed to the original intent of Opportunity Zones and endeavor to support impactful projects that incorporate community input and align with social impact goals.
Michael Saunders is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com. He edits a site on Community Foundations that highlights the Social Progress Index for Counties around the country and Opportunity Zones within these foundations' areas of coverage.
Additional Government Grants Resources
First Time Homebuyer Programs in Georgia In July 1996, the Governor and General Assembly made a vital decision to join together the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority (GHFA) with the Department of Community Affairs. Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants The United States Office of Rural Development has been running the Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants program wherein they intend to assist very low-income income homeowners in rural areas in the difficult and costly process of putting their homes up for repair. The Future Leaders Exchange Program: Host Family and School Placement and Monitoring The ECA has constituted the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program wherein it seeks to promote mutual understanding between the citizens of the United States of America and the inhabitants of Eurasia by way of sending secondary school students from Eurasia to live in an American community for a full academic year. National Science Foundation announces the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education Program The Cyberlearning: Transforming Education is a program wherein the NSF will provide funding for research proposals that aim to explore opportunities associated with the promotion and assessment of learning techniques through the help of new technologies, taking advantage of the application of those technologies, and the utilization of those technologies in the process of promoting deep and lasting learning of content, practices, skills, attitudes, and dispositions that are essential in becoming an engaged and productive citizen. Student Loan Consolidation Why Consolidate Your Student Loans? It's January of your senior year and time to start thinking about all those loans you took to help pay for college. Between Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans and al... National Science Foundation: Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering (BRIGE) The BRIGE program hopes to increase the participation of novice investigators who are just starting their professional career in all fields of engineering research. Second Mortgage Loan Program and Mortgage Credit Certificate for Homebuyers in North Carolina One of the more popular programs is the FirstHome Mortgage Program for First Time Homebuyers which offer significantly low interest rates and a rather low fixed 30-year mortgage plan.
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