(FORTUNE Magazine) – Besides patching together jeans, Levi Strauss has a long history of funding projects that help patch together groups of people. Project Change, an independent nonprofit originally funded by the Levi Strauss Foundation (and still closely associated with it), combats racism in communities where the company has manufacturing operations. There are now sites in Albuquerque, El Paso, Knoxville, and Valdosta, Ga. In Albuquerque (where task force members appear at left), research showed that people of color were twice as likely as whites to be denied home loans, regardless of their income. Project Change established a Fair Lending Center to help customers comparison-shop among local banks and to encourage banks to lend in poor New Mexico neighborhoods. In Valdosta, the project talked nine banks into funding mortgages for low-income first-time home buyers.

--Natasha Tarpley