Partners for the Common Good

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death on Friday, Jan. 30, of Sister Nora Nash, OSF, following a protracted illness. Sister Nora was the long-time representative on our member board for the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, which has been a stalwart supporter of Partners — and indeed, was one of our founding members. The order’s commitment was largely due to Sister Nora’s advocacy, and came at a pivotal point in our development. Sister Nora was a transformational figure in the faith-based and responsible investment movement. She served as the order’s director of corporate social responsibility for more than 20 years, providing leadership to promote social, ethical, and environmental stewardship in corporate investing. She was for many years active in the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), where she advocated for worker safety, child-labor laws, and fairness in compensation and lending. She also managed her congregation’s assets in community development loans and social justice grants. Her commitment to responsible investing was perhaps an unlikely turn for Sister Nora, who was born in Limerick County, Ireland, emigrated to the U.S., and took her vows at 17. She was a longtime teacher and principal before pursuing her calling in responsible investing. “Her faith in Partners has enabled us to make more ‘good trouble’ than I could have ever imagined,” our CEO, Jeannine Jacokes, recalled of Sister Nora. We honor her legacy by continuing to pursue our mission of advancing economic empowerment and opportunity for those most in need. You can learn more about Sister Nora by reading articles in the New York Times, the Guardian, and on Wikipedia. New York Times: https://ow.ly/y2v350Y9m7r Guardian: https://ow.ly/CFfC50Y9m7s Wikipedia: https://ow.ly/mk4o50Y9m7t

We've added up the numbers from 2025 and are eager to share them. In 2025, Partners for the Common Good deployed $53.5 million in financing in 29 loans, working with 19 lending partners in 17 states. These investments, including participation and syndicated loans, represent opportunity and progress in neighborhoods nationwide. As in past years, the majority of our projects focus on communities — rural and urban — where affordable housing is in short supply. We are grateful for the efforts of our partner lenders as they help show what Affordability looks like. We look forward to building on this momentum and doing even more together in 2026.

Franklin Cummings Technical College has opened its new $75 million campus in Roxbury! Partners is pleased to have played a part in funding the construction through a $10 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation. The new building allows Franklin Cummings Tech to expand and modernize, increasing career opportunities for low-income persons through affordable workforce training and wraparound service. Read more about the new building: https://lnkd.in/eFEGitea

Check out the Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book, published Jan. 14. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its district through reports from bank and branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. See how your district and market are faring: 

Come join our team and be a policy leader for the CDFI banking industry!

We are sharing the important and welcome news that Partners for the Common Good has received a $65 million allocation under the Treasury Department’s New Markets Tax Credit program. Our allocation was part of the $10 billion in NMTC awards that Treasury and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund announced last night. They said roughly 15% of those funds would support real estate projects in low-income communities — precisely the type of work that Partners focuses on. You can read Treasury’s press release here https://lnkd.in/e-d_iiAP; the CDFI Fund’s release, which is identical, is here https://lnkd.in/eKbmUeDt. The CDFI Fund’s awards book, with a list of allocations and other data, is here https://lnkd.in/eP9BeWkS. This is, of course, an important development for our CDFI peers and partners doing critical work in their communities across the country. As the CDFI Fund said in its awards book, “for every $1 of federal investment, the NMTC Program generates $8 of private investment.” We look forward to telling you more in the coming weeks and months about how we will put these funds to work.

We hope that you take a moment this holiday season to reflect on all we have achieved together this year — a year of incredible impact in communities across the country. We wish you peace and joy and look forward to our ongoing partnership in the New Year. Happy holidays!

Just a quick shout-out to thank Laurie Schoeman, our chief investment and impact officer, for her role advising on this guidebook. It addresses a real and growing problem — and offers a blueprint for grant programs that can help solve it.

We are pleased to welcome Sister Jacqueline Goodin as the new representative for the Congregation of St. Joseph, which invested in our nonprofit membership corporation in 2011. Sister Jackie is a retired clinical social worker with more than 20 years of experience providing mental health services in nonprofit agencies, schools, and private-practice settings. She was for five years a member of the congregation’s leadership team and currently serves on the board of ABLE Families, a social services organization in Kermit, West Virginia, that helps families move beyond generational poverty. She is also a volunteer in the congregational archives at St. Joseph. She has been a sister for 34 years and lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. We welcome her leadership and look forward to our work together!

Join us at noon today and explore participation lending with other mission-driven lenders!