A Tangled Web: Charlotte’s Tale of Two Cities and Corporate Philanthropy

Charlotte, North Carolina embodies a tale of two cities. It is a leader in economic development in the South and a hub for the financial services industry. But it is also a dead-end place for people seeking to escape poverty. Harvard economist Raj Chetty, in his 2014 study, The Equality of Opportunity, ranked the city dead last of the nation’s 50 largest cities in economic mobility. For a child living in Charlotte, the odds of rising from the bottom fifth to the top fifth income bracket are less than five percent—less than the average of any developed country studied.

This is the context in which two corporations, both headquartered in Charlotte, each recently announced a $10 million philanthropic gift to a list of 17 nonprofits, an average of about $1.2 million per organization over five years. Bank of America has long been known as an active philanthropic player in its hometown; the Albermarle Corporation, a global specialty chemicals company that was lured to Charlotte from Baton Rouge in 2015, is a new player on the scene. The 17 targeted nonprofits all focus on one of three areas: early childcare and education, college and career readiness, and family and child stability.