The City of Charlotte has announced a $250 million public-private partnership to advance racial equity, with $97 million in private philanthropic funds raised to date.

The Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative aims to address inequities and remove barriers to opportunity through four key workstreams: bridging the digital divide and establishing a Center for Digital Equity; investing in Charlotte's six "Corridors of Opportunity" neighborhoods; transforming Johnson C. Smith University into a top-tier, career-focused historically Black university; and ensuring that organizations commit to racial equity by advancing more leaders of color. The initiative has secured a total of $196 million, including $80 million of a $100 million goal in public funds from the City of Charlotte and other public sources and $19 million of a $37 million goal in low-return debt and equity, and is working to raise an additional $16 million in philanthropic funds toward a $113 million goal.

Philanthropic commitments include $40 million from the Duke Endowment in support of the JCSU workstream, $25 million from Bank of America, including $10 million to JCSU; $10 million from Lowe's; $8 million from Truist, including $3 million to JCSU and $5 million to ensure equitable access to capital for minority-owned businesses; $6.1 million from Atrium Health, including more than $3 million in support of JCSU for the development of a pre-med program and $2.5 million in support of minority-owned firms and development within the corridors; $5.7 million from Queens University of Charlotte; $5 million from Ally Financial, including $2 million to address the digital divide and $3 million to help meet the debt and equity needs of small businesses; $5 million from Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias; $3 million from Novant Health and Duke Energy; $1 million each from CLT2020 Host Committee, EY, the Michael Jordan family/the Charlotte Hornets Foundation, National Gypsum/CD Spangler Foundation, and Trane Technologies; $500,000 from Mary and Mike Lamach; and $220,000 from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

"The issues we face as a community are bigger, broader and more deep-seated than any one organization can address alone," said Charlotte mayor Vi Lyles. "We need a significant commitment and investment from the private sector to complement and build upon the work being done by the public sector, the community, and grassroots organizations. The vision for this effort is to establish a public-private partnership for achieving racial equity, social justice, economic opportunity, and upward mobility. The response from our corporate partners surpassed even what I could have expected, and we have set a new standard for an American city. We will celebrate today's milestone as we continue together on this critical path to opportunity and equity for all of Charlotte."