Unlocking Capital on Main Street is an 18-month pilot program that includes technical assistance, cohort learning and support, and grant funding to two participating Main Street America (MSA) Coordinating Programs. This program leverages MSA’s past work in entrepreneurial ecosystem building and our partnership with the Center for Community Investment (CCI) to implement their Capital Absorption Framework. The framework’s three functions — articulating shared priorities, creating and executing an investable pipeline of projects, and improving the enabling environment — offer leaders tools to realize their communities’ visions for stronger local economies. 

During the duration of the program, participants will select three local Main Street organizations in small-to-midsize cities with populations of 30,000−500,000 to participate in an 18-month capacity-building program to support building effective community investment ecosystems alongside experienced staff from MSA and CCI. 

The participating programs each receive: 

• Full participation in all trainings as part of a train-the-trainer process, and access to the framework & tools to expand this capacity building support to additional Main Street programs within the state/​region. 
• $50,000 Capacity Grant to the Coordinating Program. 
• $70,000 Capacity Grant to each of the three selected local Main Street Programs (a total of $210,000 in subgrants to your Main Streets). 
• Access to a pool of $500,000 in grant funds to be leveraged for pre-development financing needs in all six of the participating Main Street communities. 
• Real estate development technical assistance and underwriting support from RePurpose Capital (formerly the Main Street America Small Deal Initiative) and potential to access loan capital from the fund, provided the project and jurisdiction meet eligibility and underwriting requirements.