Although some Long Island residents are investing in their future, not all are able to do so

The rising cost of food. The skyrocketing housing market. General inflation. And the ever-escalating healthcare costs.

Financial pressures like these are impacting the social fabric of Long Island. In communities of color, which have faced historic challenges, the burden can be tenfold.  Despite these concerns, those who have the ability to invest, are expressing confidence about their knowledge of finances, and are encouraging their friends and community members to strengthen their financial health through investment education.

In the New York metropolitan region, including Long Island, people of color are investing mainly “to obtain financial security and retire comfortably,” Veronica Navarro, head of communications for J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, told LIBN. “It’s the number one reason.”

Navarro was referring to findings in the financial institution’s “Wealth Management 2023 Diverse Investor Study.” Conducted between May 30 and June 13, the study is based on a survey of more than 1,000 respondents aged 25 and older with at least $25,000 to invest. Executives at the financial institution said this is its second such survey, designed to understand trends and habits “to better serve” Black, Hispanic, and Latino communities.

Long Island is rapidly becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, according to the latest U.S. Census figures. And although some residents are investing in their future, not all are able to do so.

“While Long Island in the aggregate looks like we are very credit healthy, a deeper dive [that looks at] 17 zip codes shows we have some of the worst credit health in the country,”  said Sol Marie Alfonso Jones, the program director at Melville-based Long Island Community Foundation, citing a recent Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey.

Across Long Island, efforts are underway to support economic growth so that more people of color achieve financial health. In some instances, organizations are partnering together for meaningful change.

A common goal, Navarro said, is “looking at creating wealth and closing the wealth gap. Financial education is crucial.”

Still, financial literacy is not mandated in schools. And it’s often not taught at the home. But on Long Island, there is a focus to help people build meaningful opportunities to ultimately uplift the region as a whole.

Take LICF, an affiliate of The New York Community Trust. As a grant-making foundation, the groupsupports nonprofits and also works with donors aiming to make Long Island better.

LICF awards between $7 million and $10 million annually, most of which is donor advised. In addition, it awards $2 million in competitive grant-making, and works with JP Morgan Chase, among other organizations, to help bring about change for specific causes they care about.

Much of the efforts at LICF aim to “help investors realize their social impact goals and philanthropic goals,” Jones said.

LICF works with  various institutions that help the organization toward its goal of “addressing regional systemic issues that impact quality of life at the root cause,” Jones said.

LICF also brings donors and foundations together in “giving collectives” where donors can focus on specific issues. The organization then connects donors with nonprofits that are addressing those specifics, said Marie Smith, LICF’s director of donor relations. Through that collaboration, they can “leverage money and give it out” to the appropriate nonprofits.

Fostering entrepreneurship

For Black and Latino entrepreneurs, experts say, access to capital, technical assistance, mentorship, and other critical resources needed for businesses growth and scale are not equitably available.

Some on Long Island are seeking to reverse that trend. Consider, for example, Ascend Long Island, which aims to help and support diverse entrepreneurs in winning business contracts. Located at Hofstra University, the program is supported by JPMorgan Chase, which invested $850,000 in 2022, as well as Northwell Health, National Grid and other partners, including LICF and PSEF Foundation.

The thinking is that when underserved communities succeed, the region succeeds.

The program “has been a game-changer for the sector,” Jones said. Because of the program, LICF “has changed our own priority area of community development to focus on the importance of small businesses in maintaining quality of life, and so we’ve also been able to award grants to enhance our small business community.”

Jones considers JP Morgan Chase a “thought partner” because along with money, it brings contacts, resources, and expertise.

LICF supports other initiatives offering a path to financial security. That support includes grants awarded to Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center. It has also included workforce training programs – bringing expertise, stipends for transportation, childcare, food, and apprenticeships – all of which provide opportunity to gain skills leading to “impressive” wages, as high as $70,000 and $80,000 a year, Jones said.

This puts people on the path to building generational wealth, something Navarro said was important to study respondents.

But even if unable to invest in a portfolio, people of color are supporting the financial health of their respective communities.

“People of color traditionally have given in untraditional ways and have not been connected to traditional forms of philanthropy,” Jones said.

“For example, people of color give very generously to their religious institutions,” she added. “People of color give very, very generously to community need.”

They also lift up their families “in very significant ways,” Jones said.

That can include paying college tuition for a relative, she said, pointing to another way of leading someone they love on the path to financial health.