While one approach to community redevelopment may be to focus on blight and building code enforcement, the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative’s vision leverages existing community assets to enhance resident pride, property value and neighborhood marketability.
“The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative is a forum for local and national foundations, banks, corporate giving programs and state and local government to work together to support the revitalization of Baltimore neighborhoods,” said Ann Sherrill, director of the regranting group.
“BNC funders work together to develop joint strategies, pool and align funds for targeted neighborhoods, and identify needs and gaps to support a broader system of community development in Baltimore,” Sherrill added, noting that BNC’s objectives are accomplished through funded neighborhood organizations.
Started in 1996 by the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, BNC now coordinates 17 regular funders in grant making, technical assistance, training and information exchange services for 30 central Baltimore City community development nonprofits.
“The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative is a really good and important idea,” said Charlie Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore, a nonprofit neighborhood development and planning group. “There are lots of sources of charitable money in Baltimore, but BNC makes it possible for them to organize their approach to the city’s neighborhoods.”
A proponent of the novel “Healthy Neighborhoods” initiative, two-employee, $1.3 million-a-year BNC leverages existing neighborhood value and appeal through awards supporting community forums, market building, foreclosure mitigation, and targeted housing development and rehabilitation.
“Last year the organizations that we supported collectively assisted over 5,400 people in foreclosure assistance and financial counseling to [promote homeownership],” Sherrill said. “They also are collectively engaged in rehabbing or developing over 100 units of affordable or market-based housing.”
In awards ranging from $20,000 to $75,000, BNC funded 15 neighborhood groups in 2007 for a total amount of $695,000. BNC’s 40 total funders include Provident Bank, Black and Decker Corporation and the Baltimore Community Foundation.
“They helped us implement our Healthy Neighborhoods program,” said Johnette Richardson, executive director of Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. “They were one of the first groups to help bring that program to Baltimore.”
AT A GLANCE
Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative
2 E. Read St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-830-1221; bncbaltimore.org
