Corporate Civic Investment Funds

Looking for some good ideas on how to gain greater corporate involvement and investment in major community and economic development projects. You may want to read a recent paper by Amy Hosier from ICF Consulting on this topic. Here is a sketch of what the paper has to say. Download it here.

Over the 1990s, community development finance was transformed from a purely community-based and government-driven process to a set of initiatives that incorporate private sector, profit-motivated efforts to alleviate poverty and revitalize distressed communities. This convergence between the social sector and private sector interests and efforts has resulted in an important union: the growth of corporate-led civic alliances that address community and economic development. While prominent corporate partnerships, such as San Francisco’s Bay Area Council, have operated for decades, the mission and strategies of these entities have shifted.

Early on, these alliances tended to focus their efforts on expanding business and marketing opportunities and improving the physical environment, including public infrastructure and facility provision. While these interests remain, today many corporate partnerships now look to the economic strengths and weaknesses within their defined boundaries and work to identify ways to promote neighborhood revitalization and the overall economic viability of the larger region. In focusing their attention on the economic development of their communities, these alliances engage the social sector as partners in a range of community development activities that benefit both sides of the equation.

The evolution of corporate civic alliances and the emergence of new economic development initiatives have been influenced by the emergence of several trends. First, there has been a significant increase over the last several years in socially responsible investing – from the advent of socially conscious mutual funds at many of the major brokerage houses to a significant increase in individual investments in these funds. Second, venture philanthropy has become an accepted, expanding phenomenon, as shown by the increase in grants and program related investments made by foundations to increase nonprofit capacities to obtain and manage funding. Third, corporations have also intensified their philanthropic efforts, particularly over the late 1990s when the economy was more robust, as evident in the fact that many Fortune 500 companies have created subsidiaries focused on providing management expertise to non-profit leaders as well as making monetary investments in these organizations.

Examples are reviewed from the Bay area, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Kentucky Highlands, Cincinnati, New York and other places.