​DELAWARE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACTION COUNCIL RECEIVES $100,000 GRANT FROM THE PRINCIPAL® FOUNDATION TO PROMOTE FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT
 
WILMINGTON (October 25, 2021) – Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council (DCRAC) is pleased to announce that it has received a $100,000 grant from the Principal® Foundation to promote Financial Empowerment for people of Wilmington.
 
“For over 25 years, DCRAC has helped hundreds of Delawareans improve their lives through financial literacy and support,” said DCRAC Executive Director Rashmi Rangan. “The generous grant from the Principal Foundation comes at a critical time when our community, particularly our low-income and our Black and Brown neighbors, have experienced a drastic and disproportionate impact from the pandemic on their lives and finances. DCRAC will rise to the challenge and empower our Wilmington neighbors towards a path of financial stability and prosperity.”
 
DCRAC’s Financial Empowerment initiatives include the Money School, which offers free financial education classes; DCRAC Law, the only low-bono law firm in Delaware offering free or affordable legal services for tax, estate planning, property title fixes and contract or document review; and, Stepping Stones Community Federal Union, which provides affordable and accessible banking.
 
“We applaud DCRAC's leadership in removing barriers to financial opportunity, helping drive financial health, and supporting entire communities. This grant reflects our belief in DCRAC’s mission and advances our commitment to creating pathways to economic mobility and financial security,” said Jo Christine Miles, director Principal Foundation. “We know that DCRAC is well-positioned to deploy this grant to sustain crucial financial services and deepen its support of hardworking individuals, families, and small businesses who are at the forefront of sustaining underserved and disadvantaged communities.”
 
“DCRAC is known throughout our state for the incredible good it does to help historically disadvantaged communities navigate the often-complex world of loans, credit and asset management,” said Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington. “This generous grant will go a long way towards helping DCRAC further its mission of teaching Delawareans how to manage their money and avoid many of the financial pitfalls that so often keep impoverished communities from achieving financial stability. That mission has never been more important than right now, and I’m thrilled to see a corporate foundation like Principal Foundation make an investment like this to help lift up our neighbors.” 
 
“In the midst of the pandemic, I am grateful for the Principal Foundation's Grant to DCRAC, located in the 3rd District, that will benefit Our Constituents. Many will be able to gain access to capital that can actually change the course of their lives” said State Representative Dorsey Walker D-Wilmington.
 
Community members seeking assistance with IRS notices, estate issues or tangled titles, and/or that would like to work with a trusted community resource to secure a prosperous future should visit www.dcrac.org or call 302-298-3250.
 
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About DCRAC
DCRAC was founded in 1987 and its mission is to ensure equitable treatment and equal access to credit and capital through education, outreach, advocacy and legislation.
 
DCRAC Media Contact
Rashmi Rangan
rrangan@dcrac.org
302-824-5219.
 
 
About Principal® Foundation
The Principal Financial Group Foundation, Inc. (the “Principal Foundation”) is a duly recognized 501(c)(3) entity focused on providing philanthropic support to programs that build financial security in the communities where Principal Financial Group, Inc. (“Principal”) operates. While the Principal Foundation receives funding from Principal, the Principal Foundation is a distinct, independent, charitable entity. The Principal Foundation does not practice any form of investment advisory services and is not authorized to do so.
Principal Foundation
 
Media Contact: Melissa Higgins, higgins.melissa@principal.com
 
 

We Celebrate CRA on 10/8/2020.  Virtually!  

​​Senator Coons referenced Stepping Stones and mentions Blanche Jackson at the Q&A at the SBC hearing on minority-owned small businesses on July 23, 2020.  The first minute of this is a short plug for the work of Stepping Stones.  

A riot is the language of the unheard… but also the unbanked and unserved. 
All of us at DCRAC are outraged at the murder of another Black person by police officers and the continued violent response by law enforcement against protestors.  Protestors in need of legal consultation may call DCRAC Law at 302-690-5000.  We stand firmly with the social justice activists. 
  
When you work in the Corporate Capital of America, attempting to dismantle systemic racism—as it exists in housing, banking, economic policy and countless other arenas—you realize a few things.  The system deliberately creates racial wealth disparity.  When DCRAC was founded in 1987, a Black person was seven and half times more likely than a White person to be denied a mortgage. That has a ripple effect. In 2015, the median net worth of homeowners was 80 times larger than the median net worth of renters. Black Lives Matter, and fair housing and lending matters.  
 
The good news? This system—in all of its power, strength and longevity—can be broken.
  
Immediately, in Delaware, we need a Billion Dollar Trust Fund to benefit low-income Black and Brown families. If this seems too high, remember that lenders made over $10 billion from the first round of PPP loans. 
 
We must invest in the short- and long-term economic, physical, educational and emotional health—and wealth—of our neighbors and neighborhoods.  We know what is broken and we must come together to fix it.
 
Second, an annual percentage rate (APR) above 36% MUST be abolished.  It is a crime against the poor.
 
Third, we must require collecting ACCURATE data on race.  When our Brown daughter gets a speeding ticket listing her race as White just to make the police department look good, we know we have a problem. There must be accountability and accuracy in our numbers.    
 
For now, finally, Delaware MUST seat an Equity Commission tasked with review of policies, procedures, and practices that predominantly affect low-income, marginalized, Black and Brown communities.  The majority on the commission—well compensated at $55,000/year—City of Philadelphia’s February 2020 announcement on hiring a Racial Equity Manager lists the salary range as $50,000 to $60,000—must be those low-income individuals directly impacted by the unjust system.
 
If the non-profit community can drive these ideas into existence with the help of the banking and credit industries, a legacy will ensue indelibly proclaiming that Black Lives Matter.
 
Black lives have always mattered to DCRAC. In 2011, while the nation was still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, we chartered Stepping Stones Community Federal Credit Union—a CDFI and certified minority owned and operated financial institution.  It provides Wilmingtonians the service that the billion-dollar companies refuse. It recognizes geographic impediments, which is why we take our mobile bank to the communities. 
 
Our mission begins by embracing our humanity and seeing people beyond the credit scores. We bank the unbanked.  According to the 2016 Prosperity Now report, The Ever-Growing Gap, it will take 228 years for the average Black family to reach the level of wealth White families own today. That is as unconscionable as it is unacceptable.
 
And so we continue the fight for economic justice and march on ‘til victory is won.