Investing in Flourishing is building a new market that pays for child and family well‑being. Across the United States, our systems spend trillions responding to illness, crisis, and lost opportunity—yet invest far too little in the conditions that allow children, families, and communities to thrive. Investing in Flourishing (IIF) is shifting capital upstream by creating the capital architecture and community capacity needed to attract sustained flows of commercial, philanthropic, and public investment into flourishing outcomes—from before birth through young adulthood.

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Mission

To create a new market for flourishing by building the capital architecture and community capacities that produce flourishing, while generating a return on flourishing via savings and revenues.

Vision

An America where every young person and their family thrives, and their communities have the vital conditions for intergenerational flourishing.

Overview

In late 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York launched a “Missing Markets” project, including what has become the IIF initiative. IIF was introduced at the New York Federal Reserve’s second annual Making Missing Markets convening in late 2024. Over 2025 and early 2026, IIF and its leading demonstration sites are completing detailed plans and seeking resources for comprehensive tests of change of the IIF model. In late 2025, demonstrations are underway in Ohio, Maryland, and Tennessee, and IIF was featured again at the Making Missing Markets annual event.

In these excerpts from the 2024 Making Missing Markets conference, David Erickson, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, presents the context and key MMM themes and John Williams, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, describes who the initiative fits into the overall mission of the Bank to result in an economy that works for everyone.

Otho Kerr III, director of strategic partnerships and community impact investing at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, introduces Tyler Norris, MDiv, and Leslie Walker MD (IIF co-conveners), who present an overview of Investing in Flourishing.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Making Missing Markets initiative is focused on fostering and improving markets channeling investments into under-resourced communities. By engaging with local practitioners, it seeks to develop strategies that help connect new sources of capital to community needs and solutions, scale existing sources of capital for communities, and connect previously unlinked buyers and sellers of services and products that address critical community challenges.