E-Newsletter | April 2007
Dear Colleague,
Welcome to our latest www.Community-Wealth.org
e-newsletter. Once again, we have added dozens of new links, articles,
reports, and other materials to the site. Look for this symbol
to find the most recent additions. Here are some of our key updates:
- The seventh in our continuing series of profiles of Community
Wealth-Building Cities: Atlanta, Georgia.
- A new section of models, research resources, publications and
more about Anchor
Institutions. Here you'll find the latest information
about how the economic impact of place-based institutions including
universities, nonprofit hospitals, foundations, churches, and
museums is being leveraged to benefit communities.
- The second of our continuing series of conversations with community
wealth building leaders: Rosalind Greenstein
of the Lincoln Land Institute, a Massachusetts-based research
center that recently helped launch the National Community Land
Trust Network.
- A report on a Community Wealth Building
Roundtable held last fall in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The Roundtable is one in a series of community-based wealth building
summits The Democracy Collaborative is organizing with local partners
around the country.
- And last, but not least, Community-Wealth.org has launched its
C-W
Blog. We'll be posting items each week about up-to-the-moment
developments, breaking stories, new legislation, and more. If
you see something we should announce or feature, please let us
know!
 Ted
Howard
Executive Director, The Democracy Collaborative
Capitalism 3.0:
Outlining a New Vision to Restructure Our Economy for Nature, Equity
& Community
In Capitalism 3.0, Peter Barnes, a cofounder and former President
of the socially-oriented business Working Assets, proposes to create
countervailing institutions, operating on trusteeship principles
(similar to how pension funds are managed), that can curb the negative
social and economic effects of contemporary capitalism. Fees charged
to individuals and corporations for their use of scarce environmental
and other common resources might help finance national health insurance,
guarantee a minimum income to all, and support the local arts.
The entire book can be downloaded here: book-barnes.pdf
(704KB)
For more information or to purchase a copy for your bookshelf, see
www.capitalism3.com
Study
Reveals Two-Tier, Race-Based Lending Economy in the United States
 A
March 2007 study coordinated by six community-based groups found
large racial disparities when it examined the loan portfolios of
seven major mortgage lenders in six U.S. cities. While only 6.9%
of whites received high-cost “subprime” (at least three
points above prime) mortgages, 32.8% of Latinos and 41.1% of African-Americans
have loans with these higher rates. A key cause of this gap appears
to be that the subprime lender subsidiaries of mainstream lenders
(such as Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual) focus their marketing
efforts in minority neighborhoods.
report-campen-et-al.pdf (1.9MB)
Neighborhood
Funders Group Confronts “Elephants in the Room”
Gar Alperovitz recently delivered a keynote address to the Neighborhood
Funders Group annual “Building Community, Building Assets”
conference in Durham, NC. About 200 foundation and community development
leaders gathered to hear Alperovitz's speech: “Confronting
Elephants in the Room: The Emerging New Community Wealth-Building
Possibility.” For those committed to equitable community development,
Alperovitz argued, the big unspoken issues that must be confronted
(the “elephants in the room”) include the widening income-wealth
gap, the fiscal crisis at all levels of government, and other political
and economic trends that are decisively impacting our country's
communities.
article-alperovitz.pdf (120KB)
California
Asset-Building Bill Runs Into Immigration Politics Roadblock
In early March, State Senators Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento)
and Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) introduced SB 752, which would
have made California the first state in the nation to provide $500
tax-free, interest-bearing savings accounts at birth to every newborn.
Money could be withdrawn after the age of 18 to fund education,
buy a home or start a retirement account. Parents would be encouraged
to contribute to the accounts. Two days later, however, the bill's
prospects had already begun to fade, as Dutton withdrew his support.
According to Sacramento Bee columnist Peter Schrag, immigration
politics explains why.
article-schrag.pdf (44KB)
Social
Enterprise Movement Matures
As this series of articles in the Chronicle of Philanthropy illustrates,
social enterprise has become increasingly common in the nonprofit
world. For instance, Hope Services of San Jose, CA [one of whose
nonprofit businesses is pictured at left], which works with mentally
disabled workers, earns $7 million of its $36 million budget from
enterprise income. St. Anthony's Farm (near Petaluma, CA),
employs recovering drug addicts to help generate $1.5 million a
year in gross sales of organic milk; this in turn contributes $400,000
a year to the charity's operations.
For a general overview, see www.philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i06/06000601.htm
To learn more about HOPE Services, see, www.philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i06/06001201.htm
Information on St. Anthony's Farm, can be found at www.philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i06/06002001.htm
Virginia
Small-Town Mayor Proposes $30-million Biomass Energy Investment
George B. Fitch, the Republican mayor of Warrenton, VA has pledged
to make his rural town of 8,000 residents energy independent by
2010.The keystone of this effort is a $30 million plant the city
will build at the county dump. The facility will convert garbage,
agricultural residue, manure and other biomass into electricity
and ethanol. Mayor Fitch says he hopes to earn the town a modest
profit through the energy independence program.
article-somashekar.pdf (48KB)
New
Report Examines Role of Immigrant Entrepreneurs
According to a study by the New York City-based Center for an Urban
Future released this February, immigrants have outpaced native-born
Americans in business and job creation across the country. In the
city of Los Angeles, for instance, first-generation immigrants had
created at least 22 of what were the city's 100 fastest growing
companies in 2005. Expansion of support of micro-lending programs
could, the authors assert, result in further job and business growth.
report-bowles-colton.pdf (728KB)
Annual
Asset-Building Policy Report
In February, the New America Foundation released its annual asset
policy report. The past year saw some limited gains in the asset
building field, particularly the introduction of split-refunds on
federal income tax forms and the passage of a federal law capping
interest rates on loans to military families. This year, New America
expects more substantial legislative action to curtail predatory
lending, as well as a variety of efforts to develop children's
saving accounts.
paper-cramer-et-al.pdf (176KB)
Proposals
for a New Social Enterprise Legal Structure
In September 2006, the Aspen Institute convened a group of 40 attorneys,
investors, finance and tax consultants, and field leaders, as well
as founders and executives of several socially-oriented businesses,
to discuss whether new legal structures could help foster greater
social enterprise activity. One proposal was to create a new category
of corporation (a socially responsible corporation or SRC), which
would protect designated companies from being sued by shareholders
for failing to single-mindedly pursue profit maximization. Another
idea was to create a “social benefit” designation which
would allow foundations to invest in such companies, although any
profits earned would remain taxable.
report-billiterri.pdf (196KB)
C-W.ORG INTERVIEWS WITH COMMUNITY
BUILDERS |
C-W.org
Interviews with Community Wealth Builders
 Rosalind
Greenstein is Senior Fellow and Chair of the Department of Economic
and Community Development at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy,
based in Cambridge, MA. Founded in 1974, Lincoln focuses its educational
work on land policy and land-related taxation. Through its Community
Lots initiative, www.communitylots.org, Lincoln provides technical
assistance to a number of community groups—including the growing
community land trust (CLT) movement. C-W.org interviews Greenstein
to learn her perspective on current issues facing community land
trusts, as well as the movement's future prospects.
interview-greenstein.pdf (112KB)
NACEDA....a
voice for community economic development:
New Community Development Group Holds Inaugural Summit
An alliance of state associations of community development corporations
has launched the National Alliance of Community Economic Development
Associations (NACEDA). Roland Anglin, formerly with the Ford Foundation
and Seedco and now Executive Director of the Initiative for Regional
and Community Transformation at Rutgers University, delivered the
keynote address.
article-dubb-naceda.pdf (100KB)
Community
Reinvestment Coalition Takes Aim at Predatory Lending
 More
than 600 people gathered at the annual conference of the National
Community Reinvestment Coalition, held March 14-17 in Washington,
D.C. The conference was marked, on the one hand, by member frustration
at the nation's rapidly rising foreclosure rate, but also
by growing expectation that 2007 might be the year that Congress
passes meaningful legislation to restrict predatory lending practices.
Plenary speakers at the conference included Senator Hillary Clinton
(D-NY), Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., House Financial Services Chair Barney
Frank (D-MA), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Vice Chairman Martin
Gruenberg of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Director
John Reich of the Office of Thrift Supervision.
article-dubb-ncrc.pdf (124KB)
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING ROUNDTABLES |
Pennsylvania
Roundtable on Building Community Wealth
In the fall of 2006, The Democracy Collaborative convened another
of its Community Wealth Building Roundtables in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Sponsored by the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, The Scranton
Area Foundation, and the University of Scranton, the forum brought
together the Mayor and City Council President, labor representatives,
business leaders, community advocates, and university presidents.
Following the Roundtable, community task forces have been organized
to move forward initiatives to foster local employee ownership and
to encourage the city's anchor institutions to target their
purchasing toward locally owned businesses.
For an overview, see execsum-scranton.pdf
(72KB)
For a full transcript, see report-scranton.pdf
(240KB)
BerkShares,
Inc
 What
can a “Norman” (see Norman Rockwell 50 BerkShare note,
pictured at left) buy? Maybe dinner for two in Great Barrington,
MA. Launched last fall by the E.F. Schumacher Society and the Southern
Berkshire Chamber of Commerce to encourage local shopping, more
than 225 local businesses now participate in this local currency
system. To date, over 400,000 BerkShares have circulated. And the
effort has garnered coverage from ABC News and the New York Times,
among others.
For clippings, see: www.berkshares.org
Community
Investment Network
A project of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the
Community Investment Network provides information on issues ranging
from Community Reinvestment Act ratings on banks, predatory lending
policy debates, and financial educations programs, to community
development policy and links to local community reinvestment coalition
organizations across the United States.
www.communityinvestmentnetwork.org
Corporation
20/20
 Coming
out of the movement for corporate social responsibility and organized
by Business Ethics magazine and the Tellus Institute, a Boston-based
nonprofit, Corporation 20/20 aims to move beyond calls for corporate
social responsibility to develop new “rules of the game”
in areas such as director duties, capitalization, liability, and
accountability to make corporate social responsibility not just
a good thing to do, but a requirement of doing business.
www.corporation2020.org
First Homes
 Founded
in 1999, First Homes provides an innovative example of a large community
anchor, the Mayor Clinic, using a community land trust model to
meet the employer's workforce housing objectives. Since 1999,
$14 million has been raised and 650 new residences have been built.
The total includes more than 420 new single-family homes (including
nearly 50 community land trust properties) and more than 225 new
below-market-rate rental units.
www.firsthomes.org
Fare Start
 Since
1992, FareStart in Seattle has provided nutritious meals to those
in need while helping the homeless and disadvantaged gain work skills
running its social enterprise restaurant. Proceeds from the restaurant
cover roughly 40% of the group's budget. FareStart produces over
2,500 meals daily and has helped transform over 1,500 lives through
its 16-week job training and placement program. Nearly half of the
students involved in its training program are placed directly into
jobs in the food-service industry.
www.farestart.org
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