Convening, Recruiting, and Connecting People Who Repair Local Economies
Originally posted on Faith+Finance on September 10, 2021 Nathaniel Willis was a gardener. He built educational gardens for public schools. When his project was up for renewal in the school district budget, he discovered what power was, and what it was like to not have any. His life changed that day. He got a few […]
CategoriesCatalytic Capital Faith + FinanceOriginally published at Faith+Finance on September 17, 2021 Sister Corinne Florek has been called the Godmother of Community Development Finance; leading Catholic women’s religious orders to invest into marginalized communities all over the country and the world, in response to the Gospel. She led in creating a fund that now includes channels the investments of […]
CategoriesUncategorizedStewardship is a concept I learned at one of the most important stops on my seemingly circuitous path to now: my work in southeast Oklahoma with the Choctaw Nation. As a lesson, it has become increasingly more valuable in my work as we develop local economies: we are the stewards of the land and its resources, the […]
Here is a picture of the ecosystem that is coming together to create inclusive wealth in Washington DC, or the part of it we are working on.
CategoriesUncategorizedSustainability requires that every community meet the needs of all its members (including plants and animals), present and future, without compromising the needs of other communities meeting the needs of their members, present and future. — Michael Shuman Is neighborhood economics at a tipping point? Consciousness certainly seems to be getting there. Think how many people read labels […]
Neighborhood Economics is bringing Povertystoplight.org to Washington DC. An innovation created and proven in multiple countries in the Global South as a way to measure poverty and to do something about it, Stoplight gathers detailed information at the household level that is used to create an action plan that helps lift people out of poverty. […]
CategoriesUncategorizedPolitical Will vs Political Won’t Back in 2002, many residents and policy makers in Austin Texas read the book The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida. For the first time, those of us who weren’t obvious artists were named as holders of valuable creative fuel that measurably contributed to the economic engine. It felt like Austin […]
CategoriesUncategorizedBiomimicry vs. Biomockery Humans are biological creatures and we do best when we are in alignment with our environments. Ultimately, as noted in an earlier post, this comes down to the question of whether we are creating an egosystem or an ecosystem: An ego-system is structured to satisfy shareholder wants and to privatize decision-making. Financial […]
CategoriesUncategorizedInnovators of neighborhood economics were the lead-in of this year’s social capital (SOCAP) conference. SOCAP is the world’s largest conversation accelerating the alignment of money and meaning as a driving force for positive social and environmental change. Over the years, there’s a key theme they’ve been nurturing within the conference’s menu: local investments … community capital … neighborhood […]
CategoriesUncategorizedImpact Investing Looks Local The case for community capital (CoCap) is so plain, even Stevie Wonder can see it. Show of hands: how many of our readers are investors? Do you happen to own a piece of Dell Technologies? (Its revenue last year was $59B.) Did you buy Yahoo when it was $100/share? (It’s […]
