The Cleveland Foundation received the HUD Secretary's Award for Community Foundations for their work to catalyze the Evergreen Cooperatives. One of the inaugural ten recipients of this new award that recognizes community foundations for their leadership in housing and community development.
Ted Howard contributed this essay to Investing in What Works for America’s Communities, a book published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Low Income Investment Fund that calls on leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build on what we know is working to move the needle on poverty.
Released by Next American City, this article highlights the successes and challenges of two CDCs, Midtown Detroit, Inc. and University Circle, Inc. (UCI) of Cleveland. Faced with an unstable community, Midtown, Inc., with a revenue exceeding seven million dollars, partners with local funders, foundations, and city departments to manage over 40 projects, including new construction and rehabilitation of dilapidated infrastructure.UCI (a Cleveland Foundation partner) distributes their three million dollars towards a variety of projects, including a private police force that employs 25 officers and the operation of new bus lines.
Julie Battilana, Matthew Lee, John Walker and Cheryl Dorsey
Stanford Social Innovation Review
This Stanford Social Innovation Review article explores businesses that more fully incorporate a for-profit component to fund a social mission than traditional nonprofit social enterprises. A primary challenge to the hybrid model is the constant tension between mission and market, where the search for more profitable markets may ultimately crowd out the very people the organization is attempting to serve. However, other challenges – and opportunities – exist. This hybrid model has gained increasing notice in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. To date, sector growth has been modest. Nonetheless, Echoing Green, a nonprofit that supports early stage social business development, reports 50 percent of their 3,500 applicants now rely on this hybrid model, up from just 37 percent in 2006.
Referencing a variety of studies, this Institute for Local Self-Reliance article argues that residents in areas with a high concentration of small, locally owned business are healthier and more politically engaged than those living in communities dominated by a few big firms. Local ownership increases social capital through community improvement especially in infrastructure, self-sustainability, and social ties. The article calls for grassroots efforts to overhaul giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Target and improve distressed neighborhoods through local ownership.
