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| 3 Sep 2024 | |
| Written by Michelle Foster | |
| General |
For 30 years, the National Association of State and Local Equity Funds (NASLEF) has empowered locally engaged, mission-driven housing and community investment partners to build thriving communities.
Our members are the local champions of affordable housing. NASLEF provides financial resources, technical assistance, expert guidance, training, and advocacy for essential community development tools. We leverage national expertise and resources to focus on local communities while bringing our local knowledge and proven models to improve national policy and execution of equity investing. In the past 30 years, we have collectively raised over $20.1 billion, supporting 200,000 homes. In 2023 alone, we raised $1.2 billion to help build 8,869 housing units.
2023 was an exciting year for NASLEF. We hired our first full-time Executive Director, Michelle Foster, who joined from Cinnaire, a founding member of NASLEF. Michelle is intimately familiar with the organization as a graduate of our Emerging Leaders group.
With enhanced leadership, our goals are to deepen collaboration between members, develop new business opportunities to support national market demand, and leverage our local resources to maximize impact and advocate for resources.
As a member organization, NASLEF’s strength is in our partners’ and their collective work. We work to encourage and support collaboration between members to brainstorm, solve problems, and share the goal of thriving communities where everyone has a place to call home.
NASLEF is working toward developing new member opportunities to increase impact, promote industry growth, and help attract and retain talent in the affordable housing field. We are aiming to create an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship, and strengthens the capacity of the affordable housing sector, which will lead to a more sustainable and effective system.
We are excited for the future of NASLEF and its members, and all we can accomplish together to build thriving communities.
Ari Beliak
President, National Association of State and Local Equity Funds
President & CEO, Merritt Community Capital, a NASLEF member
