In 2014, the Citi Foundation and Living Cities launched the City Accelerator to foster innovation and promote collaboration between urban leaders to tackle some of their cities' most pressing issues. The City Accelerator selected 32 U.S. cities to pilot innovative efforts that generate economic opportunities for low-income populations and help municipalities run more effectively. Participating cities also benefited from ongoing interaction with leading practitioners from around the country and shared lessons learned to help other cities advance similar work. The City Accelerator built on the Project on Municipal Innovation (PMI), a collaboration between Living Cities and Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, which brought together mayoral chiefs-of-staff and policy directors across the U.S. to discuss challenges facing their municipalities. Cross-sector collaboration – governmental, philanthropic and private – was essential to the many successes, large and small, of the City Accelerator, which was recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Council of Foundations with the 2021 Secretary's Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships.

Launched in 2005, the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards Program was a global financial inclusion initiative that recognized the contributions of microentrepreneurs to their local economies and highlighted the importance of microfinance in supporting the economic development of low-income individuals. Over a decade, CMA recognized the efforts of more than 6,000 microentrepreneurs across 51 countries, with an average of 26 countries participating in the program each year.