By In the nearly two decades since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been a testament to hope, ingenuity and perseverance—rebuilding not just infrastructure, but systems that create opportunity. While significant progress has been made, critical work remains to ensure that growth is truly equitable and lasting. As part of an ongoing reflection, WKKF team members and local leaders will share their perspectives on community efforts, lessons learned and the investments still needed to build a future where all New Orleanians can thrive. WKKF has been investing in New Orleans since the 1940s but named the city a priority place after Hurricane Katrina. As we look ahead, we remain committed to working alongside partners to strengthen economic opportunity, racial equity and community leadership for generations to come.
One such moment was 2018, the city’s Tricentennial year, and 11 years since New Orleans became a priority place for the foundation’s investments. A rare opportunity presented itself—a moment to leverage prior investments in employment equity, align leadership, influence and resources with other funders, invest in a public-private partnership, and co-create a system intentionally designed to serve all people in New Orleans, especially those with the greatest barriers to success. Guided by the motivation that we were building a singular system that braided together economic development, workforce development and small business development through a racial equity lens for the economic betterment of all New Orleanians, WKKF made a five-year, $5 million investment—its largest investment in New Orleans to date— to support the integration of the Network for Economic Opportunity and the New Orleans Workforce Development Board into the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA).
Launched in 2010 as a public-private partnership between the City of New Orleans and the local business community, this new iteration of NOLABA signaled the creation of an entity that could strengthen alignment between economic and workforce development efforts, coordinate and expand the local small business ecosystem, consolidate business incentives administration and serve as a permanent system that leads holistic economic development strategies across mayoral and city council administrations.
With this systemic approach and large-scale investments came a set of expectations. For philanthropy it meant that our funding, our voices and our approaches would be aligned. To our nonprofit partners we stated that we would no longer fund siloed approaches in workforce development or small business development efforts. There was an expectation that there would be a real relationship with NOLABA and we would support those partnerships. To city government and the business community, as this was a public-private partnership, there was an expectation that we would all be at the table, making these decisions together. Finally, to the New Orleans Business Alliance we emphasized that these nonprofit partners stood in the gap when there wasn’t a true system’s approach to aligning workforce development efforts and small business development efforts. So there was an expectation that this would be a real partnership and that there was respect for the work that was happening on the ground and in the community when there was not this galvanizing entity.
Since 2018, WKKF has invested a total of $8.3 million in NOLABA to sustain the organization’s economic equity work and leverage the foundation’s ongoing investments in a pipeline of small business technical assistance support designed to help entrepreneurs start up, stay up and scale up, including the InvestNOLA Fund, a flexible loan fund to support entrepreneurs of color with high-growth potential. In partnership with other funders, we also leveraged additional resources to expand these efforts and maximize impact. Over its 14 years of operation, NOLABA has had a number of successes including:
- Generated $37 million+ value for economic development, using city support as leverage to triple total funding available for programming benefiting New Orleans businesses and workers
- Secured a historic $5 million investment into blue-green infrastructure, small business opportunities and career pathways through the JPMorgan AdvancingCities initiative
- Created the Gig Economy Relief Fund at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising over $1 million in funding for local gig workers facing unemployment
- Launched the InvestNOLA initiative to fill critical funding gaps and directly address the needs of entrepreneurs of color with high-growth potential, generating $43 million in procurement contracts to diverse suppliers and $4 million in capital investments for entrepreneurs of color through community development financial institution (CDFI) partnerships
- Developed and produced the New Orleans Health Innovators Challenge (NOLAHI) and other unique programming to attract investments and encourage growth of the bio sector, capitalizing on recent historic investments in our healthcare delivery and research infrastructure
- Launched the Resilient Corridors Initiative to support neighborhood businesses in seven targeted corridors identified as part of NOLABA’s Strategic Neighborhood Development efforts: New Orleans East, Lower Ninth Ward, Hollygrove, Gert Town, Gentilly, Treme and Algiers
- Directly supported 100+ business retention & expansion projects citywide, including Propel Park, DXC and Big Easy Bucha
In spite of its success and contributions to increasing economic opportunities for New Orleans, NOLABA is closing. This lookback is one of gratitude and appreciation for the promise and potential of NOLABA, fueled by the hope that we could create a system that was focused on people, not power. It is a system that considered the individuals who had the greatest barriers to success and cleared a path that would allow them to thrive.
This moment also offers valuable lessons for the path forward. Co-creating an equitable system whose positive effects are felt and realized at the community level takes time, which means having long-term effort, intention and investment that lasts beyond shifts in philanthropy, political administrations and leadership in the business community. This level of change demands buy-in and sustained effort at every level – community, nonprofit, government, business and philanthropic sectors, all working together in order to create permanent pathways for all residents to thrive.
While NOLABA’s chapter is closing, the work of equitable economic development continues. Across New Orleans, dedicated partners are carrying this vision forward, expanding opportunities, supporting entrepreneurs and ensuring that economic growth is inclusive and just. This is not the end of the effort, but a transition—one that calls on all of us to invest in a future where all New Orleanians have the opportunity to prosper.
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