Cross-Sectoral

United Neighborhood Centers of America

http://www.unca.org

United Neighborhood Centers of America is a national association representing neighborhood-based community centers throughout the United States. Formerly known as the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, it was founded in 1911 by Jane Addams and other pioneers of the settlement movement. Many of these settlement houses have expanded to become large community centers, whose programs include youth groups, senior services, neighborhood development projects, and services for immigrant and migrant workers. Read more about United Neighborhood Centers of America...

Social Compact

http://www.socialcompact.org

Social Compact is a coalition of business leaders who seek to promote business investment in lower-income communities for the benefit of current residents. Social Compact aims to counter negative stereotypes—reinforced by poverty and a lack of dependable business-oriented market information—that lead to underinvestment in inner-city markets. In particular, Social Compact addresses these issues by conducting its own highly detailed inner-city neighborhood market analysis (which it calls a "DrillDown" analysis) and through extensive municipal and community trainings and consulting work. Read more about Social Compact...

Project for Public Spaces

http://www.pps.org

Founded in 1975, Project for Public Spaces has helped over 2,000 communities in 26 countries improve their parks, markets, streets, transit stations, libraries, and other public spaces. The process used is a participatory one, based on surveying community members to develop projects, beginning with small-scale efforts, to meet their needs. One of the group's projects involves the promotion of public markets, in which public markets are employed to spur local community wealth building. Read more about Project for Public Spaces...

The Praxis Project

http://www.thepraxisproject.org

The Praxis Project is a national, nonprofit organization that builds partnerships with local groups to influence policymaking to address the underlying, systemic causes of community problems. Read more about The Praxis Project...

PolicyLink

http://www.policylink.org

PolicyLink is a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization working to advance policies to achieve economic and social equity. PolicyLink collaborates with a broad range of partners to implement strategies to ensure that everyone—including those from low-income communities of color—can contribute to and benefit from economic growth and prosperity. PolicyLink advocates for equitable public investment, the fair distribution of affordable housing, and community strategies to improve health. Read more about PolicyLink...

LIFT

http://www.liftcommunities.org

LIFT works to address the issue of poverty and limited opportunity through a two part approach: first, by having trained volunteers assist low-income individuals obtain secure income, housing, health care, and education; and, second, by encouraging LIFT alumni to engage the issue of poverty in future careers across all sectors. LIFT currently runs centers in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC, having trained more than 5,000 volunteers who have assisted more than 30,000 individuals and families. Read more about LIFT...

Innovation Network for Communities

http://www.in4c.net/

Founded in early 2007 with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Innovation Network for Communities seeks to spur community wealth building by identifying and working with partner organizations to help develop and scale up innovations. Known as nuPOLIS on the web, the group's current areas of focus include workforce development, urban sustainability strategies, urban low-income minority student learning strategies, and urban market-driven economic development strategies. Read more about Innovation Network for Communities...

Ford Foundation, Asset Building and Community Development Program

http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/program-related-investment

The Ford Foundation's Economic Fairness and Opportunity program helps strengthen and increase the effectiveness of people and organizations working to find solutions to problems of poverty and injustice. Foundation grants and program-related investments support a wide variety of organizations pursuing community development objectives, including community development corporations, cooperatives, community land trusts, and community development financial institutions. Read more about Ford Foundation, Asset Building and Community Development Program...

Center for Community Progress

http://www.communityprogress.net

A joint project of the National Vacant Properties Campaign and the Genese Institute, the Center for Community Progress works with government officials and nonprofit organizations to implement policy changes that encourage the reuse of vacant, abandoned, and under utilized properties. Striving to create strong communities by redeveloping these properties, the center accomplishes its mission by developing a national network of vacant property practitioners and experts, research dissemination, advocacy, and local capacity building through technical assistance and training work. Read more about Center for Community Progress...

Calvert Foundation

http://www.calvertfoundation.org

The Calvert Foundation invests in community development financial institutions and other community development non-profits working in urban and rural communities throughout the world. In addition to information about its social investment programs, Calvert also maintains on its website profiles of over 100 community development corporations and financial institutions. Read more about Calvert Foundation...

The Aspen Institute, Roundtable on Community Change

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/community-change

The Roundtable on Community Change was established in 1992 as a forum in which foundation sponsors, directors, technical assistance providers, evaluators, and public sector officials could meet to discuss the lessons that are being learned by comprehensive community initiatives across the country and to work on common problems they are facing. The website includes a number of reports on the issues and obstacles that such efforts face. Read more about The Aspen Institute, Roundtable on Community Change...

Annie E. Casey Foundation, Making Connections Initiative

http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/MakingConnections.aspx

Started in 1999, the Making Connections Initiative is a 10-year project designed to promote and support local efforts to rebuild neighborhoods in 22 cities. The coalitions built include residents, community leaders, businesses, government officials, schools, faith-based groups, community development corporations, and other community-based organizations. Read more about Annie E. Casey Foundation, Making Connections Initiative...

Alliance for Children and Families

http://www.alliance1.org

Committed to serving child- and family-serving nonprofits, the Alliance for Children and Families provides financial and technical support to organizations in the human services sector and their professional staffs nationwide, in order that they can better serve their constituencies. To date, there are more than 310 Alliance members in the United States and Canada, contributing more than $10.8 billion to regional economies, employing more than 53,000 full-time employees, and serving more than 3.4 million clients annually. Read more about Alliance for Children and Families...

Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)

http://www.saje.net

Founded in 1996, SAJE has taken a multi-faceted approach to pursuing community wealth building, combining a strong advocacy and community organizing focus with innovative redevelopment strategies, including negotiating community benefits agreements (in which developers agree to provide jobs for local residents in exchange for community support), affordable housing development, and immigrant access to the banking system. Read more about Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)...

Sprout Fund

http://www.sproutfund.org

Founded in 2001, the Sprout Fund is a nonprofit that works on issues related to civic engagement, talent attraction and retention, public art, and catalytic small-scale funding in Pittsburgh, PA.  Funding Sprout Seed Awards - modest grants that support community-based projects and strategic initiatives - the Sprout Fund has made nearly 200 awards, totaling $1.2 million.  In 2009, it had an operating budget of $1.3 million. Read more about Sprout Fund...

Southern Rural Development Initiative

http://www.srdi.org

SRDI was founded in 1994 by rural and community-based stakeholders, led in part by Funders Who Fund in the South, an affinity group of the National Network of Grantmakers (NNG). In its first decade, it developed partnerships with six historically black colleges; helped establish statewide CDC associations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and South Carolina; and supported nine community-based organizations that focused on youth leadership and development. Read more about Southern Rural Development Initiative...

Northland Institute

http://www.northlandinst.org

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1996, Northland's mission is to develop innovative asset-building strategies for low-income individuals, entrepreneurial non-profits, and community economic development organizations. The Institute is an active participant in national Individual Development Account (IDA) coalitions, promotes social enterprise, and advocates ESOPs as a way to build wealth among asset-poor workers and root businesses more firmly in their communities.  One key initiative it developed and now manages is the Minnesota Community Capital Fund (MCCF), which aims to increase the availability of gap-financing capital for Minnesota businesses by pooling local economic development dollars and accessing national capital markets.  Since its inception in 2003, MCCF has made 91 loans totaling more than $36 million to businesses and nonprofits across the state.

Read more about Northland Institute...

Good Work

http://www.goodwork.org

Since 1991, Good Work has trained over 3,000 people in economic literacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills, helping create or strengthen over 850 small businesses and social enterprises in North Carolina. Through business creation, Good Work helps generate jobs and contribute to the community's economic development. Read more about Good Work...

E2M

http://www.e2m.org

Founded in 2000 in Western Massachusetts, E2M (“Economy 2000”) aims to forge a community supporting economic model in which participating businesses agree to: 1) share a percentage of profits (at least 5%) with their employees and 2) contribute a percentage of profits (again, at least 5%) to the community, half of which would go to charitable causes with the remainder helping provide start-up capital for more community-oriented businesses. The group kicked off this effort with the sale of E2M coffee, but, over time, hopes to add a wide variety of product lines. Read more about E2M ...