From the Publisher

It all started here. Well, not exactly here. But in early 2020 the Review published an article by Milken Institute Senior Director Dan Carol, “The Case for an Infrastructure Predevelopment Fund,” which laid out guideposts for how hard-to-access funding could be unlocked to build infrastructure in communities of every sort across the United States. In the three years since, Dan, Rachel Halfaker and their colleagues in the MI Finance group have been busy bringing this vision to reality.

The need is very real — and very deep. McKinsey estimates that the funding to develop vital climate-resilient infrastructure, public and private, by 2050 may add up to $27 trillion in the U.S. Sources for this capital will include the big federal programs passed by the previous Congress as well as private capital markets, state governments and even philanthropies. One big catch: small- to medium-size communities often lack the know-how and the scale to access this funding.

That’s where the Institute’s 10,000 Communities Initiative comes in. A collaborative effort comprising some 20 non-profit and for-profit providers, the initiative aims to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by organizing regional “rally-up” events that offer technical assistance to localities. To address the deployment gaps in infrastructure funding, the initiative will not only help communities meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, but also assist in advancing climate equity projects in underserved rural and urban areas. The idea is to create a pipeline of deployment success stories that will facilitate more projects, and to scale up new technical assistance capacity by spreading best practices over the next three years anchored by a matching platform called the Community Infrastructure Center.

The federal funding that is providing a powerful initial push for infrastructure improvements will gradually diminish, but we believe these collective efforts will establish mechanisms for continued deployment from 2025 to 2030. In doing so, one powerful “value add” that the Institute brings to the table is the ability to bring public funding needs to the attention of appropriate foundation and impact capital sources.

The Institute’s commitment to unlock access to capital for communities and regions goes back decades. So we’re proud that the 10,000 Communities Initiative moves that commitment forward to take advantage of new enhanced opportunities. Who knows? Perhaps the next chapter in this work will again be foreshadowed by an article in the Review.

Finally, a note regarding Mike Klowden, whose From the CEO letters graced these pages for more than two decades. Mike shifted roles from CEO to executive vice chair of the Institute at the beginning of 2023. He remains a vital contributor to the Institute’s mission, and a supporter and friend of the Review.

Conrad Kiechel, Publisher