Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 5, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 33 D I V E R S I T Y & I N C L U S I O N F O C U S ACE financials and impact Worcester has been an attractive place for African immigrants and refugees since the early 1990s, according to a 2015 study commissioned by the Seven Hills Foundation. e study found Worcester was home to 37,970 immigrants from 85 countries, which at the time accounted for 21% of the city's population. According to ACE, Worcester's African-born population sits around 20,000. e city, Yawo said, has a reputation for being a welcoming place for immigrants, which is why there are so many in the area. "What happens is most times the State Department looks at community- based organizations, community engagement, and also populations that are resettled in those communities," he said. "ey know we get a lot of Somalians, a lot of Cameroonians, and Liberians. If they go to Worcester, it will be easier for them to transition because of the community." Between 2016 and 2020, a total of 1,815 African refugees arrived in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. e Democratic Republic of the Congo had the largest share, with 869 total refugees coming to Massachusetts within that four-year period, DPH data shows. e Seven Hills study, which was performed by researchers at UMass Dartmouth and the UMass Donahue Institute, found foreign-born people living in Worcester contribute significantly to the local economy. Naturalized foreign-born residents had the highest median household income ($50,865) of all groups in Worcester, measured against native households ($46,263) and noncitizen households ($37,944). Naturalized foreign-born Worcester residents had higher rates of homeownership than natives and noncitizens. Noncitizen households are the ones who struggle the most, the study found. Despite having the highest average number of workers per household, they earn less than native and other foreign- born households. ey're also the most likely to live in poverty. About 30% of African-born immigrants and their children living in Worcester live within 200% of the poverty line, according to ACE. e organization says on its website it serves only about 6.3% of those people, leaving 5,000 in critical need. Fundraising for its new home e nonprofit's planned capital campaign has a fundraising goal of $5 million, with its annual gala in October. ACE's revenue went up significantly in 2021, jumping from $618,787 in fiscal year 2020 to $1,635,721 last year. Running a nonprofit and keeping it financially stable is not a simple task, Jordan said. In his experience, raising money for a capital project is the easy part, because donors will oen give a one-off gi as part of a capital campaign. e difficult part comes in sustaining the ongoing costs of running a charity, Jordan said. It's important to create funding streams – like social enterprises – to make some money for the nonprofit. Seven Hills has that sort of relationship with its architectural firm, Group 7 Design, he said. "I teach social entrepreneurship at Clark [University] and I always tell my students, 'Charity is not sustainable' unless you have donors that assure you that they're going to make a donation every month, or on a regular ongoing basis," he said. "Trying to create other funding streams or mechanisms becomes an important part of any nonprofit entity." African Community Education annual revenue, on the rise Source: African Community Education 2017 $515,220 2018 $452,387 2019 $486,814 2020 $618,787 2021 $1,635,721 Fiscal year Annual ACE revenue ACE's mission is to help immigrants from Africa to Central Massachusetts succeed by providing tools for their success, while at the same time embracing their cultures and the unique experiences they bring to the region's community. PHOTO/AFRICAN COMMUNITY EDUCATION W

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