Julian Bond
Tracing a pathway through Julian Bond’s legacy of advocacy and education, JBI brings together Bond’s love of grassroots advocacy from his days as a founding student organizer with The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to his later work as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a chairman of the NAACP, a decades-long state legislator in Georgia, and founding board member of CRL until his death in 2015. Throughout Bond’s life, he drove policies cementing crucial consumer and civil rights for all.
About JBI
JBI’s mission is to conduct research that elevates the financial needs, challenges, and opportunities presented by our increasingly diverse nation to effectively design a financial market for the future.
Photo by Tolbert & Bing Studios, All Rights Reserved
Our Approach
JBI focuses on community narratives and perspectives to better engage academia, policy makers, and financial institutions in researching and developing financial products and policies that meet consumers’ evolving needs while leading to increased financial security and wealth for all.
Embodying Julian Bond’s commitment to economic justice for everyone, JBI places communities who will make up a majority of the future financial marketplace in the driver’s seat — creating a platform for research and collaboration that reflects the lived experiences and needs of consumers across the country.
To accomplish this, the Institute will:
Become a vital, trusted source for actionable, evidence-based research and policy solutions that policymakers, the financial industry, community and civil rights advocates can quickly access, easily understand, and effectively use to advance financial equity.
Mobilize Institute partners to accelerate support for practices and policies that allow racially marginalized communities to enjoy financial security and economic mobility.
Cultivate and elevate a diverse community of researchers and experts to inform policymakers, business leaders, and community organizations on how to create policies that allow families and communities to build financial resilience and wealth.
Advisory Council
One core component of the Institute is a new research advisory council to support research design, development, and prioritization. It is composed of academics, community members, and representatives from financial institutions to drive community-informed research to develop the financial market of the future that serves all.
Fellowship Program
The new research fellowship program supports external faculty researchers to either conduct independent research aligned with the Julian Bond Institute's priorities or deepen collaboration and capacity building opportunities for the research, outreach, and policy affiliates of the Institute.
“The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others.”
- Julian Bond
Pillars of Financial Equity
By focusing on closing the racial wealth gap and empowering underserved communities through engagement in the design and development of collaborative research projects, JBI is able to build community-informed policy solutions and innovations that achieve financial equity.
The Institute conducts research in six areas key to financial security and wealth building:
Managing Everyday Expenses
Managing Everyday Expenses
Paying for Higher Education
Paying for Higher Education
Housing Affordability and Ownership
Housing Affordability and Ownership
Expanding Small Business Capital and Credit
Expanding Small Business Capital and Credit
Ensuring an Inclusive Clean Energy Transition
Ensuring an Inclusive Clean Energy Transition
Using Technology Responsibly to Expand Financial Inclusion
Using Technology Responsibly to Expand Financial Inclusion
JBI Action Center
Want to sign up to receive JBI updates? Have a question for one of our researchers? Do you want to share a story about your experience as a consumer or borrower? We want to hear from you! Connect with us through our JBI Action Center to get involved.
Support the Institute
Generous support from people like you helps JBI build an inclusive and equitable financial marketplace of the future.