1. Our People

Shandra Richardson

Senior Director of Homeownership & Small Business

Shandra Richardson is the senior director of Homeownership & Small Business at The Chicago Community Trust.

In this role, she is responsible for driving and building on the results of a defined set of Trust collaborative and cross-functional initiatives that execute on the Trust’s ultimate strategic goal to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap.

Shandra joined the Trust in 2019 as a program manager where she managed the Fund for Equitable Business Growth, a funding collaborative to strengthen the small business ecosystem for entrepreneurs of color. She also reshaped the Trust’s housing strategy with the Protecting & Advancing Equitable Homeownership program which was set to provide funding and collaborative support for organizations and advocates working to close the Black and Latine homeownership gap. After years of enhancements, the strategy now contains several initiatives, one of which is the Home Lending Program, and supports the collaboration between Community Development Financial Institutions and Housing Agencies to advance access to capital.

Before the Trust, Shandra was the managing director of development and communications for Sunshine Enterprises, a local nonprofit dedicated to community-based economic development by equipping and supporting locally based entrepreneurs. She also served as a reporting analyst at the Chicago Housing Authority in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Strategy Area

Household Wealth

Addressing the wealth gap at the household level by increasing incomes, building assets, and reducing debt.

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