Partnerships for Community Impact: Higher Education and CDFIs Working Together

Institutions of higher education and community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have a long history of partnering with one another to strengthen their local communities. However, until now, there has been little research conducted to understand the breadth and depth of these partnerships. In November 2011, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund ("The Fund") commissioned Opportunity Finance Network ("OFN") to undertake a two-phase research study to explore the relationship between CDFIs and institutions of higher education. The first phase of the study, a national survey of CDFIs, provided insights into the types and characteristics of partnerships that exist between CDFIs and colleges and universities. Seventy-two (72) organizations from 34 states and Washington, D.C. responded to OFN's survey. From this survey, three key themes emerged: Partnerships between institutions of higher education and CDFIs are more common than one might think: Eighty-two percent (82%) of CDFIs report working in partnership with higher education, generally with four-year institutions, and with public institutions more than private ones. While there are many types of partnerships, working together on community-focused initiatives is most frequent. The most successful partnerships leverage the financial resources and expertise from both institutions of higher education and CDFIs to co-invest in projects that build the local community. Other types of partnerships include research partnerships (the college or university provides research for the CDFI), and training/education partnerships (the college or university provides technical assistance or education to the borrowers of the CDFI).These partnerships are enduring, most frequently lasting five years or more. Factors driving the success of these partnerships include strong relationships between the CDFI and the college's leadership and staff, and the institution's commitment to community development and community relations.In the second phase of the study, case studies were gathered to highlight examples of successful collaboration between institutions of higher education and CDFIs. These case studies illustrate the diversity of opportunities available to achieve shared or complementary goals through partnership, such as:Improving Access to Healthy Food: Food deserts, or minimal community access to healthy foods, are a problem seen across the United States. La Salle University and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) addressed this problem in northern Philadelphia as part of a larger community revitalization project. Together with other members of the community, TRF and La Salle developed an 80,000 square foot retail center adjacent to La Salle's campus. In addition to providing fresh, healthy food for the underdeveloped neighborhood, the project created 250 jobs and used green building methods to reduce energy consumption. Increasing Child Care and Education Options: The University of Chicago and University of Chicago Hospitals System, in partnership with IFF, a CDFI serving Chicago, embarked on an initiative to expand capacity for child care providers in the local economically distressed community. This project created new child care options for 60 additional children, and spawned two additional projects. With assistance from IFF once again, the University of Chicago created its own child care center on campus for employees' children, and subsequently opened its own charter school, which now has four branches serving low-income communities across the city.Developing Small Business and Entrepreneurship: Small business has long been acknowledged as a key pathway to economic prosperity, but entrepreneurs need both business skills and access to capital to succeed. The relationship between Hope Enterprise Corporation, a CDFI serving the Gulf Coast, and Delgado Community College is working to train entrepreneurs and provide access to capital in the greater New Orleans area. Under the agreement of the partnership forged through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, Delgado provides business training to entrepreneurs and Hope provides loan capital to those who complete the training. Revitalizing Distressed Neighborhoods: Located just one block north of Duke University's east campus, Walltown had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s, with high crime rates and dilapidated houses. In 1994, Duke and Self-Help, a national CDFI headquartered in North Carolina, began a decade-long effort to revitalize and stabilize this neighborhood. With financing from both entities for construction and subsidies, they renovated or built 77 properties in the neighborhood and several community facilities, and made it possible for residents to become homeowners. As a result of the project, crime rates dropped by almost 50 percent in Walltown while property values rose in nearly all (99 percent) Walltown properties, including those that were not renovated in the project. Measuring Social Impact: CDFIs are always looking for ways to measure their social impact; meanwhile universities are constantly in search of significant research projects for their students and faculty. As a result of these complimentary needs, the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business (Darden) and Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) teamed up to assess the social impact of opening new branches in "unbanked" Latino communities. Darden found that when LCCU opened a new branch, armed robberies declined by 22.6 percent and properties values rose by 3.8 percent. The groundbreaking report was widely disseminated and referenced in major publications, achieving the goals of university research. The research also helped LCCU communicate the impact of its work to its supporters.Through this research, it is clear that partnerships between institutions of higher education and CDFIs provide solutions to a wide variety of challenges that face our communities. We hope that leaders of institutions of higher education and CDFIs will understand the great potential for building relationships with each other, and will explore new opportunities for collaboration and investment to benefit their communities

An Overview of the Nonprofit and Charitable Sector

[Excerpt] A number of policy issues have direct or indirect consequences for the nonprofit and charitable sector, including the establishment of a social innovation initiative, changes in the tax treatment of charitable donations, responses to the economic downturn, and health care reform. The nonprofit and charitable sector represents a significant portion of the U.S. economy. The sector is also highly diverse. Having a greater understanding of the nonprofit and charitable sector as a whole may help policymakers evaluate proposals that may impact the sector. The first section of this report provides a formal definition of the nonprofit and charitable sector. The term “nonprofit sector” is generally intended to refer to organizations with federal tax-exempt status; “charitable sector” refers to the subset of these organizations that have 501(c)(3) public charity status. The next section reports on the size and scope of the charitable sector. Charitable organizations are estimated to employ more than 7% of the U.S. workforce, while the broader nonprofit sector is estimated to employ 10% of the U.S. workforce. In 2009, the charities filing Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service reported approximately $1.4 billion in revenue and reported holding nearly$2.6 billion in assets. Nonprofit institutions serving households (largely charities) constituted more than 5% of GDP in 2008. The third section of this report examines how charities are funded. Revenue comes from a variety of sources, including private contributions, payments (fees for service), government grants, and investment income. Revenue sources vary significantly across different types of charities: charities involved in health care (including nonprofit hospitals) and educational institutions rely heavily on private payments while arts, culture, and humanities charities and environment and animals charities are more reliant on private contributions. Private contributions to charities are of particular interest as charitable giving may respond to changes in the tax code. As the recent economic downturn has increased the demand for goods and services provided by a number of charities, the impact of the business cycle on funding is also discussed. The fourth section provides an overview of the charitable sector’s relationship with government. From a theoretical perspective, economics suggests that the government should subsidize activities that are either public goods or have positive external effects. It can be argued that some charitable activities possess these qualities. The costs to the government of providing grants, allowing charitable contributions to be tax deductible, exempting investment income of charities from tax, and providing property and sales tax exemptions are presented. The oversight role of the government is also reviewed. Finally, the report concludes with policy considerations. This section opens by surveying what policy options are considered most important by charitable organizations themselves. Building on this, a number of policy options are examined, including (1) increasing government grants and subsidies to charitable organizations; (2) creating an oversight agency within the federal government to gather data, conduct research, and advocate for the charitable sector; (3) implementing policies designed to help charities and foundations in economic downturns; (4) changing the itemized deduction for charitable contributions by limiting, converting to a credit, or making the deduction more widely available; and (5) a variety of other tax issues

Unemployment Among Young Adults: Exploring Employer-Led Solutions

Younger workers consistently experience higher unemployment and less job stability than older workers. Yet the dramatic deterioration in employment outcomes among younger workers during and since the Great Recession creates new urgency about developing more effective bridges into full-time employment for young people, especially those with less than a bachelor's degree. Improving the employment status of young adults and helping employers meet workforce needs are complementary goals. Designing strategies to achieve them requires insight into the supply and demand sides of the labor market: both the characteristics of young people and their typical routes into employment as well as the demand for entry-level orkers and the market forces that shape employer decisions about hiring and investing in skill development. A quantitative and qualitative inquiry focused on the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Ill. and Louisville, Ky

Transition and Renewal: The Emergence of a Diverse Upstate Economy

During the 1900s, the U.S. transitioned from an economy based largely on manufacturing to one in which almost all jobs are in services. This transition has rearranged the economic fortunes of regions throughout the nation: Locations in the Sunbelt and on both coasts prospered in the 1970s as traditional manufacturing centers in the Midwest declined. But such “rust belt” states as Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan rebounded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the hemorrhage of manufacturing jobs abated and service-sector and finance jobs surged. While their recovery has not returned these states to the preeminence they enjoyed in the 1960s, it has disproved many forecasts of inevitable decline for the nation’s industrial heartland

Sustaining the Legacy: A History of the Pew Charitable Trusts

Outlines the evolution of the Trusts from their origins, including the commercial and philanthropic ideas in which the founders invested

Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities

Presents a five-part agenda and organizing plan to reinvigorate the nation's older industrial cities, and aims to mobilize governors, legislative leaders, and local constituencies toward advancing urban reform

City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy: The Boston Indicators Report 2012

Analyzes indicators of the city's economic, social, and technological progress; potential for creating innovative solutions to global and national challenges; and complexities, disparities, and weaknesses in the indicators and innovation economy paradigm

The Social and Economic Impacts of FreshWorks: An Examination of Three Northgate Gonzalez Grocery Store Investments

In order to better understand and maximize FreshWorks' impact, TCE commissioned a two-year evaluation of the program's food access, social, and economic outcomes. The evaluation also sought to document the development and implementation of FreshWorks while identifying key lessons and insights. Given that FreshWorks is an early example of a statelevel fresh food financing initiative, the evaluation provides an opportunity to inform the greater healthy food movement going forward. The evaluation was led by a team of researchers experienced in evaluating health, social and economic outcomes. The team consists of the Sarah Samuels Center for Public Health Research and Evaluation, PCV InSight, Dr. Allison Karpyn of the University of Delaware, and Dr. Karen Glanz of the University of Pennsylvania.This report, one component of the evaluation, focuses on the economic and social impacts of the three Northgate González stores funded by FreshWorks. It seeks to answer two key research questions: * How does FreshWorks impact employment and job quality of workers in local communities, particularly in underserved communities? * What broader economic impacts do FreshWorks investments have in the communities where they are located

Cash-Cow into the Purse of Malaysian Property Investors: Students Housing Investment

Growing demand for higher education (HE) and increasing students enrolment in higher education institutions (HEI) has been a global issue especially in the last three decades and housing the growing student population has become a dilemma for all concern HEIs stakeholders. Globally increasing demand for HE and enrolment has long been not corresponding with student housing supply. Most HEIs provide housing accommodation for a small proportion of their total students’ population while the majority depend on private rental sector for their alternative housing. In most of the HEIs neighbouring community residential houses were rented out to students. These houses are not sufficient to accommodate the teaming student population because the market is dominated by traditional small-scale private developers. However, with the continuing expansion and demand for HE, increasing enrolment and increasing students housing demand, the study highlighted and suggested for private investors to pull up and dig into student housing investment. This will ameliorate and fill the shortfall created by inadequacy of HEIs housing provision. Student housing investment is a resilient market, lucrative venture and guaranteed cash cow

The Economic Development and Workforce Development Systems

Provides an overview of current U.S. strategies for and challenges in ensuring economic growth with adequate employment opportunities and preparing disadvantaged people for careers. Also summarizes goals, key stakeholders, and the policy environment