The ICA Fund, formerly known as Inner City Advisors, is a community development fund based in Oakland, California. ¹ Founded in 1996, ICA Fund offers investment and mentorship to ethnic minority and women small business owners in the Bay Area who are focused on left-of-center principles like racial and gender equity ¹ and inclusion. ²

Activities

ICA Fund invests in businesses and mentors business owners in the Bay Area of California based on the left-of-center principles of equity and inclusion. ² The organization claims that women and minorities have been excluded from the financial system. ³ Since 2016, ICA Fund claims to have invested over $10 million in over 100 Bay Area businesses with 90% of those investments going to women and minorities. ⁴

ICA Fund offers seed funding and consulting to local entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs of early-stage business can apply for support from The Lab, ICA Fund’s 12-week business development program, if their businesses are generating revenue and have been operational for at least one year. ⁵ ICA also offers a program called The Accelerator, another 12-week development program focused job creation and scaling businesses to expand more rapidly. ⁶

Additionally, ICA Fund offers investments for early-stage businesses, including those that are not yet profitable. For businesses to receive investments, they must focus on “closing the racial and gender wealth gaps” and show a commitment to equity. ICA Fund provides seed investments of up to $50,000 and long-term growth investments of $250,000 to $500,000. ⁷

As of January 2024, ICA Fund supported over 130 small businesses, the majority of which are restaurants, food producers, or artisans. These businesses include Rize Up Bakery, a bread company with a black power fist in its logo; Prideful Patchez, a clothing company selling African-American-themed and political patches including patches that read “Black Lives Matter,” “Melanin,” “I am Melanated and Hella Black,” “Power to the People,” and “My Skin Color is Not a Crime”; ⁸ Big House Beans, a coffee roaster that hires recently released criminals; Adda Veggie, a producer of plant-based meat substitutes; and Wisdom Supply Co., a producer of plastic- and vinyl-free school supplies. ⁹

People

Allison Kelly has worked as the CEO of ICA Fund since 2019. Previously, Kelly was the head of strategy and innovation at CDC Small Business Finance, a Small Business Administration lender. ¹⁰

Supporters and Sponsors

ICA Fund is supported and sponsored by a large number of banks, left-of-center foundations, technology companies, and other corporations, including the California Wellness Foundation, a grantmaking foundation that gives several million dollars annually to left-leaning policy advocacy organizations; the U.S. Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund; a financial services company based in Dallas, Texas; Crankstart Foundation, a private grant maker that gives to left-of-center organizations advocating for policies to promote abortion, weaken election integrity, and promote identity politics; Deloitte, a multinational consulting organization; the East Bay Community Foundation, a local donor foundation that directs funds to community projects focused on social justice and left-leaning political causes; online marketplace eBay; Google, a multinational technology subsidiary of Alphabet; the James Irvine Foundation, a nonprofit donor organization with a history of donations to left-of-center labor union activist organizations; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., a multinational bank; Living Cities, a grantmaking and advocacy organization that promotes left-wing economic, infrastructure, and developmental policies; the Oakland Athletics, a Major League Baseball franchise; San Francisco Foundation, a major community foundation focused on racial equity and economic inclusion; Sobrato Philanthropies or the Sobrato Family Foundation, a private foundation in Silicon Valley that promotes amnesty for illegal immigrants; multinational bank Wells Fargo; and Whole Foods Market, a grocery store chain owned by Amazon. ²

1. “ICA.Fund Independent Auditor’s Report and Financial Statements.” Hood & Strong LLP. December 31, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jwQ4tk2QamZUQXNJMhK8ftLy4tz-CV3d/view.
2.  “About.” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/about.
3. “Better on the Future.” ICA Fund. 2022. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://assets-global.website-files.com/60c7adbb86e307befa145103/648c669992d5a8cc1178f700_Impact%20Report%202022.pdf.
4. “Impact.” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/impact.
5. “The Lab” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/thelab.
6.  “Accelerator” Ica Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/accelerator.
7. “Investment.” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/investment.
8. “Shop.” Prideful Patchez. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://pridefulpatchez.com/shop/.
9. “Our Companies.” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.ica.fund/our-companies.
10.  “Allison Kelly.” ICA Fund. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.ica.fund/team-members/allison-kelly.