Living Cities is a grantmaking and advocacy organization that consists of business and nonprofit organizations. It promotes economic, infrastructure, and development policies that align with left-wing societal objectives.

Founded in 2001, Living Cities started out supporting mostly neighborhood-level projects before adopting a broader and more activist approach beginning in 2007. From 2015 onwards, the organization has put a particular emphasis on race-based initiatives. ¹

History

Living Cities was originally named the National Community Development Initiative in 1991, where over the next decade its goal of improving local housing was backed by major non-profit foundations and for-profit banking institutions. The Initiative invested $250 million in 24 target cities by 1999. Since 2007, Living Cities has increasingly focused on race, with an explicit focus on alleged structural racism in America’s legal framework, economic opportunities, and social culture. This external focus on race issues was matched by a 2018 internal audit which led to a left-of-center race-based company infrastructure. ²

Initiatives

Living Cities places left-wing racial-identity activism at the forefront of all its initiatives. The organization identifies dismantling the dominant culture of the United States, which it labels “white supremacist,” and shifting the demographics of small business and property ownership to favor ethnic minority groups. ³ Living Cities directs its funds, as well as those of its partner institutions, towards several main categories of projects, which generally include some form of affirmative action on the basis of race or other minority status. ⁴ The organization also publishes research which provides support for its philanthropy and policy advocacy. ⁵

1863 Ventures

Living Cities is participating in a major fundraising effort aimed at implementing private-sector support for minority-owned businesses. The initiative’s organizers claim that differing outcomes between racial groups cost the United States economy trillions of dollars and include LGBT and ethnic minority groups among the project’s target audiences. ⁶

Living Cities has contributed at least $1 million of the fund’s $10 million. ⁷ The program was started in 2015 as a Washington, D.C.-based initiative. It has since expanded nationally with partners like financial firm Goldman Sachs, Ford Motor Company, and Fivrr. ⁸

Living Cities and 1863 Ventures were two of several organizations which heavily criticized a Wall Street Journal opinion piece which said left-of-center diversity initiatives “may” have significantly contributed to the 2023 failure of Silicon Valley Bank, one of America’s largest banking institutions. ⁹

Internal Racial Agenda-Setting

Living Cities has published a large variety of resources designed to help organizations including Living Cities itself implement a left-wing racial agenda in the workplace. Some of them provide guidance for assessing staff members’ views on race-related issues and instilling Living Cities-approved views in the company culture. Others take a pseudo-therapeutic approach, with titles such as “Breath & Body Work as Anti-Racism Practice” or “Zine-Making as Storytelling and Healing.” ¹⁰

Minority Home Ownership

Living Cities backs and promotes government and private affirmative action initiatives to increase rates of home buying among ethnic minority groups, including by offering capital on the basis of race. ¹¹ The bank Wells Fargo funded a 2022 report co-authored by Living Cities and the left-of-center think tank Urban Institute which claimed that the partnered study of six U.S. cities showed that “systemic racism” interferes with minorities’ ability to own a home. ¹²

Race and Business

Living Cities supports initiatives that support start-up and small businesses based on the ethnic backgrounds of their staff and management. The organization has also endorsed passing laws that would benefit minority business owners. ¹³ One of its initiatives was launched in 2022 with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to provide more investment and banking capital to Black-owned businesses. The initiative’s announcement came with a goal of raising $100 million, with starter funds of $10 million from the Foundation, which had previously invested $1.67 million in Living Cities to conduct a study on Black-led businesses and access to capital. ¹⁴

Another initiative is the Blended Catalyst Fund, which provides capital to various organizations seeking to increase business ownership and capital access for businesses owned by minorities. 1863 Ventures received funding in 2022. ¹⁵

Corporate and Non-Profit Partners

Living Cities’ partners include many large U.S. and international banks, such as Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo, as well as left-of-center non-profit foundations such as the MacArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ¹⁶

Leadership

The Living Cities board of directors includes high-placed representatives of numerous prominent left-wing philanthropic institutions, as well as the grantmaking arms of major corporations. Brandee McHale is a Living Cities board co-chair. She is the head of community investing and development at the Citi Foundation, a grantmaking arm of the Citigroup financial services giant. Lisa Hamilton, the other co-chair of the organization’s board, is the president and chief executive officer of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore, Maryland-based philanthropy which works closely with the Open Society Foundations of influential liberal activism funder George Soros. ¹⁷

Other prominent board members include Andrew Plepler, Bank of America’s global head of ESG and a senior vice president at the Fannie Mae Foundation; ¹⁸ Lynette Bell, president of Truist Foundation, the non-profit arm of the bank which was created when BB&T and SunTrust merged; ¹⁹ and Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and previously ABC News’ chief medical and health editor and an acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ²⁰

Joe Scantlebury is the president and chief executive officer of Living Cities. He has worked for several other major left-wing grantmaking organizations. These include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which has backed prominent ethnic-minority activist groups such as the National Council of La Raza (now called UnidosUS) and the NAACP, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ²¹

Chipo Sachirarwe is the chief operating officer at Living Cities. She previously worked for Fox News and the Universal Media Group. She has also held a position with the Jersey City, New Jersey Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which pushes for businesses, academic institutions, and community organizations to adopt left-wing racial-policy objectives. ²²

Financials

In 2020, Living Cities received a total of just over $11.5 million in contributions and grants. The organization paid out less than $1.5 million in grants of its own, with more than $5.3 million going towards salaries and employee benefits. ²³ Living Cities’ revenue ranges significantly year to year, with revenue as low as under $3 million in 2018 and as high as over $28 million in 2017. Its expenses are consistently between $10 million and just over $15 million. ²⁴

Between 2002 and 2021, Living Cities received more than $19 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to fund projects in the Chicago, Illinois area as part of the organization’s “National Community Development Initiative.” ²⁵

Between 2009 and 2011, the Kellogg Foundation, for which Living Cities chief executive officer Joe Scantlebury previously worked, awarded the organization a $2 million grant for the National Community Development Initiative. ²⁶

In 2016, the Gates Foundation, another previous workplace of Living Cities’ Joe Scantlebury, issued the organization a $3 million grant to conduct research, also in support of the initiative. ^{27 28}

Between 2019 and 2022, the Rockefeller Foundation put $2 million towards the initiative as well, specifically to support Living Cities’ affirmative-action work to reduce racial income disparities. ²⁹

1. “Our History.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/about/our-history/
2. “Our History.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/about/our-history/
3. “Issue Areas.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/work/issues/
4. “Initiatives.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/work/initiatives/
5. “Resources.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/our-resources/
6. Demetric Duckett. “1863 Ventures Seeks to Close the ‘Friends and Family’ Financing Gap for New Majority Entrepreneurs.” Living Cities. July 27, 2022. Accessed Marc h 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/blog/1863-ventures-seeks-to-close-the-friends-and-family-financing-gap-for-new-majority-entrepreneurs/
7. Demetric Duckett. “1863 Ventures Seeks to Close the ‘Friends and Family’ Financing Gap for New Majority Entrepreneurs.” Living Cities. July 27, 2022. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/blog/1863-ventures-seeks-to-close-the-friends-and-family-financing-gap-for-new-majority-entrepreneurs/
8. Vistage staff, “How 1863 Ventures turns entrepreneurs into CEOs,” Vistage, December 15, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.vistage.com/research-center/business-growth-strategy/20221215-1863-ventures-entrepreneurs-ceos/
9. 1863 Ventures, “Open letter from Black Women in Venture Capital, BLCK VC, 1863 Ventures & Living Cities to Andy Kessler & Wall Street Journal Editors in response to the op-ed “Who Killed Silicon Valley Bank?” PR Newswire. March 16, 2023. Accessed March 27, 2023.
10. ^[1]“Racial Equity and Inclusion.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/issues/racial-equity-and-inclusion/
11. ^[1]“Homeownership.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/issues/homeownership/
12. Living Cities, “Living Cities, Urban Institute research report: A landscape scan of homeownership for households of color,” Living Cities. January 10, 2023. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://livingcities.org/resources/living-cities-urban-institute-research-report-a-landscape-scan-of-homeownership-for-households-of-color/
13. “Business Growth.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/issues/business-growth/
14. Living Cities, “Living Cities and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Launch $100 Million Fund to Grow People of Color-Led Businesses and Close Wealth Gaps,” PR Newswire. May 2, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/living-cities-and-ewing-marion-kauffman-foundation-launch-100-million-fund-to-grow-people-of-color-led-businesses-and-close-wealth-gaps-301537611.html
15. Duckett, Demetric, et al, “Living Cities Blended Catalyst Fund 2022 Annual Report,” Living Cities. October 28, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://livingcities.org/resources/living-cities-blended-catalyst-fund-2022-annual-report/
16. “Our Board.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/about/board/
17. “Our Board.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/about/board/
18. Andrew Plepler profile page, Living Cities. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/andrew-plepler-3/
19.  Lynette Bell profile page, Living Cities. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/lynette-bell/
20. Richard Besser profile page, Living Cities. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/richard-besser-2/
21. ^[1]“Joe Scantlebury.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/joe-scantlebury-2/
22. ^[1]“Chipo Sachirarwe.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/chipo-sachirarwe/
23. Living Cities Inc the National Community Development Initiative 2020 Internal Revenue Service Form 990. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/260003950/download990pdf_07_2022_prefixes_22-27%2F260003950_202106_990_2022071920232925
24. Living Cities Inc the National Community Development Initiative.” Nonprofit Explorer. ProPublica, May 9, 2013. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/260003950.
25. “Living Cities: National Community Development Initiative.” MacArthur Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.macfound.org/grantee/living-cities-national-community-development-initiative-36248/
26. “Living Cities, Inc: The National Community Development Initiative.” W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.wkkf.org/grants/grant/2009/03/living-cities-membership-p3010963
27. ^[1]“”Living Cities Inc. The National Community Development Initiative.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2016/11/opp1163349
28. “Joe Scantlebury.” Living Cities. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://livingcities.org/people/joe-scantlebury-2/
29. ^[1]“Living Cities, Inc.: The National Community Development Initiative.” Rockefeller Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/grant/grant-2019-149/