By Southwester Staff
The PNC Foundation has committed $500,000 in grants to GOODProjects, an organization working to help families in Southwest DC live fulfilling lives free from poverty and violence while promoting health and wellness.
The grants will support GOODProjects’ work to promote social justice, expand financial education and workforce development initiatives and enhance small business economic empowerment.
“PNC is committed to driving real change in areas in which we can make the greatest impact,” said D. Jermaine Johnson, PNC regional president for Greater Washington and Virginia. “As a Main Street bank, we are focused on advancing meaningful and sustainable opportunities in traditionally underserved populations and communities where we live and work.”
The grants will support GOODProject’s Family Success Planning initiative, a program in Southwest that involves an array of interventions to help meet the needs of the whole family so that they can achieve self-sufficiency. In operation since 2016, GOODProjects aims to lift 500 families out of poverty by 2030.
“It’s an honor to receive this social justice impact grant from PNC Bank,” said Darius Baxter, CEO of GOODProjects. “Together with PNC, the GOOD Community is fulfilling the promised ‘blessings of liberty’ America has withheld from people of color for four centuries. With these funds, we look forward to eliminating the roadblocks to basic needs so families can define and achieve their own success.”
This three-year grant is a part of PNC’s $88 billion Community Benefits Plan, inclusive of a previously announced commitment of more than $1.5 billion to support the economic empowerment of Black Americans and low- and moderate- income communities. The Community Benefits Plan will provide at least $88 billion in loans, investments and other financial support to benefit low- and moderate-income individuals and communities, people and communities of color, and other underserved individuals and communities over a four-year period.