Unleash Funding Source for Equitable Media

Dear Publisher:

Since 2009, U.S. banks have invested nearly $3 trillion to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income families and revitalize their neighborhoods thanks to a 1977 law—the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) —created to end the discriminatory practice known as redlining.

Yet very little of that money has gone to media outlets like yours that provide essential information and other critical support services to those same communities (“Equitable Media”).

This must change. 

Sign our letter by August 1 urging federal agencies to encourage banks to invest in Equitable Media.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to correct this injustice. For the first time in 37 years, federal agencies are updating the rules that govern CRA. The deadline for commenting on the new rules is Aug. 5. It is both critical and urgent that you add your voice to the growing call to have these rules include incentives for banks to invest in Equitable Media.

Through its Equitable Media and Economies Initiative, MMCA worked with national experts to develop common sense recommendations designed to help media outlets serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and other historically disadvantaged communities benefit from CRA and to help banks benefit from investing in them. 

Specifically, we are urging federal agencies to include investments in Equitable Media on the list of CRA “qualified activities,” and to encourage banks to use Equitable Media as community engagement intermediaries to more effectively communicate and engage with residents and to advance their equitable revitalization efforts and CRA compliance. You can read our full comments here.  

If successful, these changes would help to unlock an unprecedented, unparalleled and sustainable revenue source for strengthening BIPOC media ownership and the communities they serve. BUT WE MUST ACT NOW.

ADD YOUR NAME to our letter and help unleash a new and robust funding source for BIPOC-serving media. Then forward this letter to other publishers urging them to do the same.

In solidarity,

David Morgan

President, MMCA