Good Data is Key to Ensuring the $6 Trillion Potential In Opportunity Zones Benefits Communities

For The First Time, Opportunity Zone Investors Can Understand The Goals, Values, And Behaviors Of The Residents In Opportunity Zone Communities

Public Democracy has been leading the way in creating market-actionable data around the priorities and interests of the local communities living in Opportunity Zones. Our work was recently recognized by the U.S. Census as one of the top tech solutions to empower local communities and better align investment with community priorities.

At a national and local level, we have been creating opportunities for local residents to share their insights and demonstrate to investors that the most profitable investments will be those that best meet local market demand and strengthen, rather than disrupting local communities.

Opportunity Zone Background & Our Vision

The Opportunity Zones (OZ) incentive is a new community investment tool established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. We believe the emerging OZ market has real potential to create access to capital and increased agency and economic opportunity for struggling communities. But it could just as easily become a results-blind tax haven that ignores the impacts on and priorities of local communities.

What we all do now can make a real difference in how the OZ market develops.

To ensure OZs work for those who deserve a hand up in our communities, local, state, and federal governments along with civil society and the foundation/NGO community need to improve pathways for direct engagement and actionable data creation from local communities. That will be the key to creating market-driven incentives for funds, businesses, and local governments to invest in community-focused initiatives and direct resources in ways that reflect OZ community needs. By doing so, we will create greater value for investors who understand these communities more fully. OZ is a market, and so the better we can all aligning investor and community interests, the better the social and economic outcomes.

Scaling Success

As we scale our work at Public Democracy, our community-centered data is already being used by LPs, fund managers, economic development leaders, community members, and others who are approaching the OZ incentive as a completely new way to create jobs, cultivate more resilient business environments, and rebuild overlooked communities across this country.

We believe OZs will work best when led by communities, driven by data, and connected to an array of investors — ultimately generating strong investment returns by improving economic vitality and quality of life.

If that's a belief you share and you see this incentive in the same way we do, we look forward to collaborating with you. Click below to learn more about the tools we are using to create community based data, and how we’ve already been applying them to give agency to OZ residents and shift investor priorities at the national and local level.