Real estate entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a cornerstone of community revitalization and wealth creation—particularly in historically underserved communities and communities of color. 

Yet institutional support has often remained narrow: identify a challenge, issue a modest grant, and move on. That approach has generated impact, but it has rarely been sufficient to build ownership at scale, strengthen development capacity, or materially close racial wealth gaps. 

Which is why the appointment of Chanda Smith Baker as President & CEO of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation carries broader significance.  

For emerging developers, it signals continued momentum toward a more holistic understanding of how philanthropy can support equitable revitalization. 

“Resourced at the Level of Our Vision” 

Before stepping into this role, Smith Baker co-founded the Black Collective Foundation MN, grounded in a powerful question: 

“What would it look like if Black communities in Minnesota were resourced at the level of our vision, not the level of our need?” That framing is critical. 

Traditional philanthropy often funds deficits. Smith Baker’s work has focused on funding agency—normalizing Black stewardship of capital not as a special initiative, but as “a permanent and powerful part of Minnesota’s philanthropic and economic landscape.”  

For emerging developers, the distinction is profound. Being funded because a neighborhood is “distressed” is not the same as being capitalized because you are a long-term owner and wealth builder. 

Expanding the Capital Continuum

Smith Baker has been direct about what lasting revitalization requires: 

“If we want revitalization that lasts, philanthropy has to move beyond small grants and into the full continuum of capital and capacity.” That continuum includes patient capital, access to networks, technical support, and demonstration investments that attract follow-on private and public dollars.  

This is not a critique of grantmaking. It is an acknowledgment that sustainable revitalization, and sustainable ownership, requires more than project-based subsidies. 

Emerging developers consistently cite gaps in predevelopment capital, balance sheet strength, underwriting expertise, and relationships with institutional capital providers. When those gaps persist, even the most promising projects struggle to reach execution. A foundation willing to help de-risk projects, align partners, and provide long-term capital tools becomes more than a funder. It becomes infrastructure. 

Community foundations are particularly well positioned in this regard. They steward pooled donor funds, maintain long-term endowments, and sit at the intersection of donor intent, community knowledge, and institutional investment, enabling them to deploy grants, mission-aligned investments, program-related investments, and convening power in coordinated ways. 

Scaling Conditions for Ownership

Across her career, from neighborhood-based enterprise to senior leadership at major philanthropic institutions, Smith Baker has worked at both community and systems levels.  

Her insight is straightforward. “Place-based success scales when you scale the conditions, not just programs.” For developers, scaling conditions means improving access to capital, aligning policy and public-sector tools, strengthening institutional trust, and coordinating cross-sector actors around shared economic outcomes. Community foundations can influence each of those levers simultaneously. 

Ownership as an Economic Strategy

Persistent racial wealth gaps are not accidental; they reflect long-standing investment patterns.  

Smith Baker has noted that community foundations are uniquely positioned to rethink how capital flows because they sit between donors, institutional investors, and community leaders.  

That positioning matters for real estate. When developers from communities of color gain ownership stakes in revitalizing corridors, the wealth generated through appreciation, cash flow, and equity recapitalizations remains closer to the neighborhoods themselves. 

That is not simply equitable—it is economically stabilizing. It builds local tax bases, supports small business ecosystems, creates generational wealth, and allows communities to define their own growth trajectories.  

Across the country, institutions like the Kresge Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation have paired catalytic capital with technical assistance to strengthen local development capacity. These models underscore what is possible when philanthropy embraces a broader capital strategy. 

With Smith Baker at the helm, Minnesota has the opportunity to continue advancing that evolution—supporting emerging developers and other entrepreneurs not only through grants, but through the full spectrum of capital and capacity required to build lasting ownership and community-defined prosperity.