Anchor Institutions

Cleveland's Greater University Circle Initiative

Justin Glanville
The Cleveland Foundation

A new Cleveland Foundation report highlights the achievements and lessons learned from the Greater University Circle Initiative—a robust partnership among the city’s anchor institutions to foster economic and community revitalization. To date, the Initiative has created three employee-owned companies through the Evergreen Cooperatives Initiative, developed a workforce training center, launched an employer-assisted housing program, catalyzed changes to the city’s public transportation system, spurred over $140 million in new, public-private development, and helped direct an increasing percentage of the institutions’ more than $3 billion in purchasing toward local businesses. 

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Survey of the Current and Potential Impact of Local Procurement by Philadelphia Anchor Institutions

Office of the Philadelphia Controller
The City of Philadelphia

City Controller Alan Butkotvitz recently commissioned a citywide survey, which found that Philadelphia’s “eds and meds” spend over $5 billion annually on good and services. This finding has prompted Butkotvitz to explore opportunities for how local anchor institutions can boost local employment by shifting 25 percent of their procurement to local vendors. The Democracy Collaborative was pleased to be asked to contribute to the report.

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Illinois Governor's Task Force Moves Forward with Community Wealth Building

Jan 31st, 2014
Democracy Collaborative contributions highlighted

In April of 2013, Democracy Collaborative Executive Director Ted Howard was invited by the Governor's Task Force on Social Innovation, Enterpreneurship, and Enterprise to present our recommendations for low-cost, high return policies that could build community wealth across the state of Illinois.  (You can read this "Action Agenda" document here.) We're happy to report that a number of our suggestions have been incorporated into the Task Force's new report to the Governor and General Assembly.

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The Rise of the Anchor Institution: Setting Standards for Success

Aaron Bartley
Huffington Post

 Aaron Bartley, co-founder of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), describes the growing use of anchor-based economic development strategies and recommends the Collaborative’sAnchor Dashboard as a tool for universities to measure their community impact.

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Bringing Wealth Creation Closer to Low-Income Communities

Fred Rose

This article in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Magazine Communities & Banking, highlights the Wellspring Upholstery Cooperative, a new worker-owned business supported by over fifteen anchor institutions and community-based organizations in Springfield, Massachusetts. Established by the Wellspring Collaborative, a network of worker-owned companies modeled after the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland and Mondragón Cooperative Cooperation in Spain, the upholstery cooperative will leverage the purchasing power of anchor institutions to employ ex-offenders and the underemployed.

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Hospitals and Economic Development

Jan 7th, 2014
Community Catalyst, Democracy Collaborative webinar introduces core concepts
Recently, the Hospital Accountability Project (HAP) and the Democracy Collaborative co-hosted a webinar, “Community Benefit and Anchor Institutions: Linkages and Opportunities,” exploring how the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) community benefit requirements may be opening new doors to work on economic development initiatives that benefit communities. Over the course of this blog series, we will begin to make those connections.
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Community Health Network Slides

Powerpoint slides prepared by Dan Hodgkins, Vice President of Community Benefit and Economic Redevelopment for Indiana's Community Health Network, for a webinar, organized by Community Catalyst and the Democracy Collaborative. Presented on December 4, 2013, the webinar explored how community benefit requirements, especially in the wake of new Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations governing Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA), can provide a powerful and effective framework to drive transformative community economic development. For more information, view the webinar.

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Key Community Benefit Terms

Across the country, nonprofit hospitals are beginning to comply with a new federal requirement that they partner with community and public health representatives to identify and develop strategies for addressing community health needs. This requirement, found in the Affordable Care Act, builds on the best practices of leading hospitals and hospital systems that already strategically invest resources and build partnerships with community groups and public health leaders to improve community health. This one-page provides definitions for important terms to know.

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Community Benefit and Anchor Institutions: Linkages and Opportunities

This webinar, organized by Community Catalyst and the Democracy Collaborative, explored how community benefit requirements, especially in the wake of new Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations governing Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA), can provide a powerful and effective framework to drive transformative community economic development.  

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Why Eds and Meds Matter for Community Economic Development

Dec 4th, 2013
A response to Richard Florida's recent article in Atlantic Cities

Crossposted from Rooflines: The Shelterforce Blog

A recent article in Atlantic Cities by Richard Florida, titled "Where 'Eds and Meds' Industries Could Become a Liability," has caused a bit of a stir. The article warns that relying on anchor institutions such as local universities and hospitals (also known as “eds and meds”) for economic development is chancy. 

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The Anchor Dashboard at the Department of Housing and Urban Development

In November, the Democracy Collaborative's Ted Howard and Sarah McKinley, along with Charles Rutheiser of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, presented The Anchor Dashboard as part of a national webcast at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Ted Howard at the 2013 MAS Summit for NYC

Democracy Collaborative Executive Director Ted Howard was invited to moderate this discussion on the role of anchor insitutions at the Municipal Art Society's annual gathering. Read more about Ted Howard at the 2013 MAS Summit for NYC...

Oberlin College Adopts Impact Investing Platform

Nov 13th, 2013
Likely largest higher education commitment to social investing in nation to date
A few weeks ago, Oberlin College, with an endowment of nearly $700 million, adopted what is likely the largest impact-investing platform to date by a college or university in the United States. Although Oberlin is just one institution, the decision provides a hopeful sign of an accelerating institutional shift toward greater socially responsible investment practices. A tremendous opportunity exists. Higher education as a sector controls more than $400 billion in endowment assets.
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Will Our Universities Rekindle Their Public Purpose?

Nov 5th, 2013
Anchor institution movement restores sense of public mission

Crossposted from Rooflines: The Shelterforce Blog

America’s colleges and universities are at a crossroads. For all too many students, a college education has become a major economic gamble. Over the past three decades, inflation-adjusted tuition has more than doubled at both public and private universities. Meanwhile, professors are harder to find: tenured and tenure-track professors have gone from roughly 45 percent of all teaching staff to less than a quarter since 1975. In short, students and their parents pay much more for much less faculty time. 

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