In 2022 Craft3’s attention was on both the crucial and immediate work of investing in Pacific Northwest communities and building our long-term plan for a better, stronger future both for Craft3 and for the Pacific Northwest. By the end of the year, we had accomplished much – record lending to the people and places of our region and a new plan to guide us for the next five years beyond. We thought long and hard about the future of the Pacific Northwest in 20, even 40 years, and how Craft3 could contribute to creating a thriving, just and empowered region.
In addition to thinking about a longer time scale, we also approached the process differently than in the past. To create a plan that would address the region’s most pressing challenges, we collaborated broadly, working with many local partners and experts, Craft3 staff, and our Board. We also challenged ourselves to be ambitious in terms of our goals, our values, and our willingness to commit to the long term. Our new plan focuses not only on capital, but also on relationships and voice as key strategies to help us build partnerships and collaborate. We did this because we believed it would help create a strategic plan that would resonate more broadly and guide us all in working to create the future that the Pacific Northwest deserves.
Because of this context, our 2022 Annual Report is a little different. As usual it provides an overview of the past year. But it does so by focusing on the regional challenges — Systemic Racism, Climate Crisis, and Rural and Tribal Economies — around which we organize our Strategic Plan and our work for years to come. We hope you enjoy learning about the early stages of this work and gaining a sense of what’s to come.
Our last two Annual Reports were focused on the economic fallout related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the urgency of the public health crisis recedes and as many aspects of the economy recover to pre-pandemic levels, we, like many others working towards economic justice, realized it would not be enough to rebuild the pre-pandemic status quo. That economy was not working for far too many people.
In this report you will learn about how we are working to expand economic opportunities and build a thriving, just, and empowered Pacific Northwest.