Cincinnati Financial Freedom Blueprint
The Cincinnati Financial Freedom Blueprint is the culmination of a yearlong collaboration with the Mayor’s Office and City Administration to develop a strategy to address the racial wealth gap in Cincinnati. The goal of this blueprint is to ensure every resident in Cincinnati has the opportunity to achieve financial freedom through asset ownership.
In 2022, the City of Cincinnati was selected by the national nonprofit Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund’s (CFE Fund) CityStart initiative to create a blueprint to help address the financial empowerment needs of residents and the opportunities to meet those needs, prioritizing the financial stability needs of Black residents. As part of the CFE Fund’s CityStart initiative, which is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, the City received a $75,000 planning grant, as well as extensive CFE Fund technical assistance. The goal of this blueprint is to lay out evidence-based investments and policies that the City will pursue to address this inequity, particularly gaps in asset ownership and to lay the groundwork for future partnerships.
Under the sponsorship of the Mayor’s Office, a cross-departmental team, led by the Office of Performance and Data Analytics (OPDA), designed and underwent a yearlong process of data collection, community engagement, and research to understand the goals and barriers that were most pressing to the community. The goal of this process was to answer one central question:
“What is the City uniquely positioned to do to address the racial wealth gap and help all its residents gain financial freedom?”
The Cincinnati Financial Freedom Blueprint
Community Engagement Dashboard
About CFE Fund’s CityStart Initiative The CFE Fund’s CityStart initiative is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, whose mission is to accelerate the pace of Black wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities in the U.S. The Greenwood Initiative is advising the CFE Fund on the design and execution of this iteration of the CityStart program with a specific lens on racial wealth equity.
For more information about this project, contact the Mayor's Office.
Sheryl Long is currently serving as the 18th City Manager for the City of Cincinnati.
