1 min read

A Profile of Ralphine Caldwell  –
 What it takes to connect capital and community

Published Sep 19, 2026
By
Knight Foundation
Photo credit: Daniel Ribar

Overview

Ralphine Caldwell is the senior executive director for LISC Charlotte. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)— one of the largest community development financial institutions in the country — is built on a simple but powerful idea: communities need a real bridge between hard-to-reach capital and the people who need it most.

LISC Charlotte opened in March 2019 to oversee the Charlotte Housing Opportunity Investment Fund. Like its national counterpart, the office pulls investment from the public, private and philanthropic sectors and puts it to work in housing, health, safety, small business support, commercial development, lending and the capacity building of grassroots organizations on the ground.

Q&A

When you’re starting something like this, what’s the very first thing you have to do? Where does it all begin?

When LISC Charlotte looks at bringing an initiative into the city, the first thing that we do is talk to the community. One of the first things that we did was hold community meetings [across] different forums so that we could be clear on the direction community members wanted their neighborhood to take. We’ve been able to uplift projects that have been quite successful in Charlotte, simply because we were able to establish trust early on and the partners know that we have their best interests at heart.

What tools, skills or supports do you rely on to make this work happen?

None of the work or the success of LISC Charlotte would ever have happened without the LISC Charlotte team. I have an amazing staff; all of them have been with the organization since day one. They’ve been on the team for seven years and none of the work that we do [investing over $173 million in Charlotte since the office opened] would be possible without them.

What would you say is the toughest part of the work, the thing that demands the most from you either mentally or logistically?

Dealing with many of our community partners having their funding halted or stalled. The current environment where we are right now is a concern for us because we’re in a different economy right now. We keep our focus on our partners and make sure they have what they need. If they don’t [have the money they were counting on], they cannot serve as many people as they did at the same time last year.

Who do you lean on? Which other team members or partners really help you succeed?

While we work all over the City of Charlotte, our core focus is Historic West End. When we started working in that neighborhood, the first thing that we did is we reached out to J’Tanya Adams, who is the executive director for Historic West End Partners. They’re the economic and small business development arm of the community and she’s a resident as well, so we knew that we needed to partner with her for us to really dig deep on community development and engagement.

What's one mistake or failure that taught you something essential about your work?

In March of 2020, none of us knew that we would be in the middle of a pandemic. We were [working on] housing, but we weren’t sure about our next initiative. Because we were approached by the City of Charlotte to get grant dollars out to businesses, we made working with small businesses our next initiative.

We also learned that businesses needed technical assistance. There were instances where the businesses were missing paperwork or they were trying to make sure that they were getting documents to us. The transition from in-person to virtual [made that difficult], but it helped shape our small business and technical assistance programs.

How do you stay sane? What helps you keep perspective or stay grounded when the work gets overwhelming for you?

When the work starts to get hectic and I feel the load and I feel the weight, I am reminded of my upbringing. I’m reminded of my father saying “you make sure you’re taking care of yourself, but be sure you’re taking care of your community. To whom much is given, much is required.”

When things get hectic, I try to stay grounded in those words. I’m getting better at taking time off to unplug, but when I unplug, I’m still working on being my best self. It is difficult to step away because I am very passionate about this work, but I think what continues to drive me is that I feel like I have a purpose in my role: to be a leader and mentor.

What’s one essential book everyone should read?

Stop Chasing, Start Creating by Justin Jones-Fosu was recommended to me when I was opening the new office. I recommend it for folks in a similar situation, looking to get up to speed quickly.