By Brianna Gavigan, Senior Vice President | Director of Resource Development
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what drives community development.
Money matters. Without it, ideas stay scribbled on napkins instead of becoming businesses. Storefronts sit empty and talented entrepreneurs are left wondering whether anyone will ever believe in them enough to take a chance.
But after spending 15 years in this work, I’m convinced that capital alone doesn't transform communities. People do.
An early mentor described community development as tending to a garden. You can buy the very best seeds in the world, but if the soil has been neglected or no one waters it, those seeds never become much of anything. Growth has always depended on more than a single ingredient. It takes the right conditions, and it takes people who are willing to create those conditions together.
That's what drew me to resource development in the first place. People sometimes assume fundraising is about asking for money, but I've never experienced it that way. At its best, it's about finding people and institutions whose values already align with the work and inviting them to become part of the story. The work of fundraising isn’t simply securing resources, it’s building the partnerships that make community development possible. Every grant, investment, and philanthropic commitment represents someone choosing to believe in the people and places that organization exists to serve. The strongest partnerships aren't transactional; they're rooted in shared purpose and a belief that communities deserve long-term investment.
At TruFund, we have the privilege of meeting entrepreneurs at remarkable moments in their journeys. Some are preparing to buy the building they've rented for years. Others have landed the contract they've spent a decade working toward. Some want to hire their first employee or finally bring a long-held idea to life in the neighborhood that shaped them. Rarely are they looking for someone to hand them success, but more often, they're hoping for someone willing to stand beside them long enough to help make success possible.
That's why I've never believed a loan begins on closing day. By the time the documents are signed, dozens of conversations, relationships, and decisions have already made that moment possible. Maybe it’s a foundation willing to provide flexible dollars because it understood innovation requires room to experiment. Maybe it was a bank that believed expanding a CDFI's lending capacity would create opportunities traditional financing alone could not. Maybe a public agency invested because it understood that healthy local economies don't happen by accident, or a corporate partner funded technical assistance because they understand entrepreneurs deserve more than capital alone.
The people making those decisions may never meet the business owners whose lives they ultimately touch, yet they become part of the same story. That's one of the privileges of my work - I have the opportunity to build relationships with funders who care deeply about the future of communities and to connect their vision with entrepreneurs who are working every day to build that future.
I think that's one of the most incredible things about Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs): we spend our days translating between worlds. We understand underwriting, risk, and capital structures but we also understand that every spreadsheet represents a person. Behind every application is someone wondering whether they’ll be able to keep the doors open, hire another employee, provide for their family, or finally take the next step to grow their business.
That perspective certainly changed the way I think about return on investment.
Yes, we measure loans, jobs, and dollars deployed because those metrics matter. But over time I’ve realized that numbers rarely capture what people remember. They don’t tell you about the childcare center that can finally expand so working parents have somewhere safe to bring their children, that neighborhood restaurant where generations gather around the same table, or the contractor who wins one opportunity that changes the trajectory of their business. Those are the stories that stay with people.
None of those stories belong to a single organization. They come from dozens of decisions made by people who chose to work together instead of apart, and these partnerships quietly leave their fingerprints on businesses that become community anchors, strengthening communities in ways no one organization could alone.
Over the years, I've sat through countless conversations about interest rates, lending capacity, underwriting, and repayment terms. Those conversations matter! They’re an essential part of responsible stewardship. But what has stayed with me most is how often they end up somewhere entirely different. Someone mentions the neighborhood where they grew up, they may talk about the small business owner who gave them their first job, or the commercial corridor they remember as a child that they'd love to see bustling again.
In those moments, I'm reminded that the people who choose to fund this work aren't simply investing in portfolios or programs - they’re investing in places that shaped them, in opportunities they wish more people had, and in the belief that strong communities are built together.
