Hurricane Katrina Relief - BCC Encourages Friends to Support Enterprise Corporation of the Delta

September 6, 2005

Dear Friends of Boston Community Capital,

We wanted to share with you our escalating concern about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina.    Like you, we have been inundated with shocking images of human suffering.  As we come to grips with the extent of the damage, we realize how difficult it will be for the people of the Gulf region to recover.  We want to help.  The disproportionate impact of the hurricane on low-income people who lacked the means to evacuate, and the challenges of the relief operation, reinforce the need for all of us to act as quickly and as effectively as we can. 

Enterprise Corporation of the Delta (ECD) is one of our sister organizations – a pioneering and well-respected community development financial institution, focused on creating economic opportunity throughout the Mid-South with offices in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.  Our friend and colleague Bill Bynum, the Executive Director at ECD, reports that ECD’s New Orleans office has been completely wiped out, and that many ECD staff members there are now homeless.  Bill also knows that the low-income people ECD serves, many of whom have lost their homes and their income, will face difficult challenges in the weeks and months to come, and will need assistance.

Our colleague Clara Miller at the Nonprofit Finance Fund in New York City – whose organization played an important role in that city’s rebuilding efforts in the wake of September 11^th, and who knows first-hand about the longer term support that is vital to a community’s recovery – has urged people to reach out and support ECD.  We agree. 

ECD has set up the “Enterprise Corporation of the Delta – Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund” for anyone willing and able to make a contribution to help the region recover. Initially, donated funds will be routed to community partners who are providing food, clothing and shelter for those in Louisiana and Mississippi who were displaced by the storm.  As these basic needs lessen, the Fund will support payment deferrals, provide down payment assistance, and otherwise extend a bridge to those recovering from this tragedy.  ECD is coordinating its lending and relief efforts with the Red Cross, state and municipal governments, CDFIs and others.

Please join with Boston Community Capital in supporting ECD’s efforts by making a contribution to ECD’s Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund to help Enterprise Corporation of the Delta to bring relief and assistance to the people deeply affected by this devastating storm. 

Checks should be made payable to:

Enterprise Corporation of the Delta

c/o Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund

222 North President Street

Suite 200

Jackson, MS 39201

ECD’s website (www.ecd.org) has more information about relief efforts.

We know that the Boston Community Capital community, as a whole, represents a tremendously powerful network.   Please feel free to forward this email to friends, colleagues, family members and others who also may be looking for a way to help, and as always, thank you, for your ongoing support and commitment to helping to build healthy communities where low-income people live and work.

Warmest regards on behalf of the Board and Staff at Boston Community Capital,

 Elyse Cherry, Dick Jones, and Becky Regan 

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