Website

Pension Research Council, Wharton School of Business

The Pension Research Council sponsors interdisciplinary research on the entire range of private pension and social security programs, as well as related benefit plans in the United States and around the world. Their web site includes working papers and conference presentations on a wide variety of pension-related topics.

National Governors' Association, “Center for Best Practices”

The Center for Best Practices seeks to identify and promote innovation in state government by surveying states on key issues and cataloguing innovative programs (it also does consulting for individual states on specific issues). On its web site, it has a weekly newsletter, Front and Center and makes available many of its reports for public dissemination.

Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution

The Metropolitan Policy Program (formerly the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy) of The Brookings Institution was launched in 1996 to provide research and policy analysis on the shifting realities of cities and metropolitan areas. Their website includes city-by-city analysis of the 2000 U.S. census results, as well as a number of downloadable newspaper articles, presentations, and studies by Institute fellows.

Local Government Commission (Sacramento, CA)

The Local Government Commission (LGC) is a nonprofit membership organization that provides inspiration, technical assistance, and networking to local elected officials and other dedicated community leaders who are working to create healthy, walkable, and resource-efficient communities. Two primary areas of concentration are smart growth and resource conservation (including the promotion of renewable energy sources). On both issues, the web site has a large number of freely available reports, articles, and case studies.

Heartland Capital Strategies

Heartland Capital Strategies works to implement jobs, creating economic development investment strategies that utilize the capital held by labor in pension funds and other institutions in order to create high road workplaces and build sustainable regional economies.

Governing Magazine Online

Governing is a monthly magazine whose primary audience is state and local government officials: governors, legislators, mayors, city managers, council members and other elected, appointed and career officials. It has a total circulation of 85,000 and provides some of the most in-depth analysis available of state and local policy innovation.

Employee Benefit Research Institute

Established in 1978, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed exclusively to data dissemination, policy research, and education on economic security and employee benefits. Their web site contains a wealth of information and studies, including fact sheets, newsletters, and records of past congressional testimony on pension issues.

Economic Development Research Group

The EDR Group is a consulting firm that works on economic development strategies, with a specialty in doing economic impact analysis. Its on-line library provides a large collection of downloadable articles on economic development impact analysis.

Citistates

Founded in 1995, the Citistates Group is a network of journalists, speakers and civic leaders focused on building competitive, equitable and sustainable 21st century metropolitan regions. Its web site includes reports on regionalism, newspaper commentary articles, essays, and reviews of major books relating to topics of regionalism and local community development.

Center for Venture Research, (Whittemore School, University of New Hampshire, Durham)

Founded in 1984, the Center for Venture Research has undertaken and published numerous studies in the area of early-stage equity financing of entrepreneurial ventures, including its annual survey of angel investors. Abstracts of the survey and the Center's publications are available on line.

Appalachian Regional Commission, “Research Reports”

The on-line research library of the federal government's Appalachian Regional Commission provides a wide variety of studies on regional economic strategies including reports that look at telecommunications, business development, and general infrastructure issues.

Alliance for Regional Stewardship

Formed in 2000, the Alliance for Regional Stewardship aims to foster collaborative multi-sector regional stewardship in America's metropolitan regions. Their web site includes presentations and papers from past conferences, as well as specific links and resources tied to four topics: new economy (e.g., high-tech industry), sustainability, collaborative governance models, and social inclusion.

Finance Project/Information Resource Center

Founded in 1994, the Finance Project provides research, consulting, technical assistance, and training to assist in the development of policies, programs, and financing strategies for community development efforts. Its website contains links to publications on a wide range of community wealth building initiatives.

CFED Assets and Opportunity Scorecard

The Assets and Opportunity Scorecard measures how easy or difficult state policy makes it for families across the United States to achieve self-sufficiency. The scorecard focuses on two areas: first, a family's ability to build assets that can be used to invest for the future, send children to college, and weather unexpected financial storms; and second, safety nets and safeguards that provide financial security in the event of a job loss, medical emergency, or other family emergency.

Asset Funders Network

AFN, founded in 2005, helps foundations identify how to direct resources so that asset policy and products are accessible to people with limited resources or otherwise unable to build sufficient financial reserves to withstand emergencies and plan for their future. The website contains conference presentations and other materials on community wealth building.

Annie E. Casey Foundation: Family Economic Success initiative

Annie E. Casey's Family Economic Success initiative helps low-income working families build their financial futures in strong neighborhoods by integrating three key components: job and skills training, family asset building, and community wealth building. The website includes a wide range of publications on these issues.

Asset Coalition Toolkit for States

Asset Coalition Toolkit for the States (ACTS) is an independent, information-sharing website where state coalitions can exchange knowledge and strategies in the asset-building field. Sponsored by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s Community Investment Unit with support from the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Friedman Family Foundation, ACTS provides a forum that fosters innovation through a wealth of resources.

Walmart Subsidy Watch

This website, organized by Good Jobs First, tracks the more than $1.2 billion Wal-Mart has received in tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing and outright grants from state and local governments around the country. An interactive map allows the website user to determine how much subsidy his or her state has provided.

Time Banks USA Member Directory

This member directory, provided by TimeBanks USA, lists both member and non-member time banks across the U.S. along with contact information in one convenient location. A time bank is an institution where community members can “deposit” hours they spent working in the community in order to earn time when someone else works for them. This give-and-take approach to building communities breeds mutual value and respect that goes beyond the exchange of money.

 

Progressive Cities & Neighborhood Planning

Focused on progressive cities and neighborhood planning, this online resource provides insight into initiatives mainly from the 1970s into the 1990s, and some up to the present, that sought to fight back against regressive 1960s urban policies. This project is an effort to preserve and collect the historical record of these initiatives, to encourage additional scholarly research, and to stimulate and support related collections at the sites where the material is generated. Additionally, blog posts are added periodically and expand upon the gathered materials.