For roughly 20 years, Girls Inc. of San Antonio didn’t have its own space.
“We’ve sublet space from other nonprofits,” said Lea Rosenauer, President and CEO of Girls Inc. of San Antonio. “We borrowed space from churches. We’ve begged for space in schools, and we’ve never had a place to call our own.”
That changed in December 2023 when the nonprofit cut the ribbon for its Girls Inc. campus.
But it was a long path to get there.
Girls, Inc.’s mission
Girls Inc. of San Antonio’s official mission is “to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold.” Ultimately, the nonprofit provides participants with positive female role models and helps them gain confidence and dream big.
Finding Girls Inc.’s first home
After 18 months of searching, Girls Inc. found the site for its headquarters. A friend of Rosenauer’s mentioned a church for sale. It was a great location—along a bus route in the San Antonio Independent School District, which serves most of Girls Inc.’s participants.
Despite no “for sale” sign, Rosenauer knocked on the door to ask about the property.
“I walked in, and I knew it was the place,” she said. Girls Inc. San Antonio closed on the property in March 2020. The nonprofit’s board voted to move forward with a $6 million fundraising campaign for the project. By early 2022, Girls Inc. met that goal.
A lot happened in those two years, including rising costs, labor shortages and shipping delays. As a result, that $6 million price tag rose to $8.5 million.
Our designated New Markets Tax Credit team is here to help project owners throughout the development process, including assessing eligibility.
Falling for Girls Inc.’s mission
“Girls Inc. had a gap in financing they were looking to fill,” said En Jung Kim, Director of New Markets Tax Credit for Community Development Banking at JPMorgan Chase. “And New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) equity is a really amazing tool for that.”
One of the main things Kim and her team look at when evaluating NMTC-eligible projects is impact. “We’re looking at what the organization does, how they support low-income communities and who they ultimately service,” Kim said. “I fell in love with the mission of Girls Inc.”
The organization’s work focuses on girls’ health and well-being, education and leadership development through various programs, including camps held during school breaks. Even in that short amount of time, the girls participating can come out of their shells.
“We’ve had girls who come in and are shy and timid and don’t want to do anything or talk to anybody,” said Janelle Alvarado, Program Facilitator at Girls Inc. of San Antonio. “Throughout that month—just that month alone—we do teambuilding activities and really engage with them. We get to know them, and we want them to know that we genuinely care.”
$2.6MM
NMTC equity investment from JPMorgan Chase
5K
Girls served annually upon project completion
100+
Construction and nonprofit jobs created
Building on Girls Inc.’s work
With JPMorgan Chase’s NMTC equity investment, Girls Inc. began work on its new home.
That started with adapting the former church to serve the nonprofit’s needs. The Girls Inc. team moved into its offices in the redeveloped space in August 2022 while construction was underway for the rest of the campus.
In 2023, the nonprofit opened its new space, and its making the most of the 25,000-square-foot campus, which includes:
- A scratch kitchen, where girls can learn about nutrition, cooking and culinary arts.
- A digital library of e-books with curated stories that are about girls and written by female authors.
- A STEM-focused innovation lab, “a place where girls can get dirty and messy and break things apart and figure things out and fail. Then they can celebrate that failure and try again,” Rosenauer said.
- An entrepreneurship and finance lab where girls can learn more about financial topics, including running a business, owning a house and making investments.
- A teen center and art studio, which includes a selfie wall and other design elements requested by the girls in Girls Inc. of San Antonio’s programs.
- A flexible, multipurpose space where girls can play inside, away from the Texas heat. “It’s not quite a gym,” Rosenauer said. “But pretty close.”
- A gathering place where the girls can eat meals or watch a movie. It can also be used for small group work or to host speakers.
- Outdoor space, including a play area along with a traditional garden and a butterfly garden.
“We had all of these spaces intentionally built for the girls,” Rosenauer said. “The environment we want to create is welcoming and nonjudgmental. ‘Be who you are. We’re here to support you, and we will help you overcome any barrier to make your dream come true.’”
We’re here to help
JPMorgan Chase has been an NMTC equity investor since the program’s inception. Our designated NMTC team is here to help project owners throughout the development process, including assessing eligibility.
