Financing rural innovation with community development venture capital: models, options and obstacles

Growing local companies is essential to the economic prosperity for many rural regions and residents. Rural economies, however, rarely attract traditional venture capital. Given the important role that patient capital plays in entrepreneurial development, the future economic vitality of rural communities rests, at least in part, on their ability to access such capital. Community development venture capital (CDVC) is a particularly adept model for overcoming the structural obstacles that rural geographies present for venture capital investors. Rubin explores some of the obstacles this model faces, along with options for sources of funding.Community development ; Venture capital

Shifting ground: Can community development loan funds continue to serve the neediest borrowers?

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are designed to improve economic conditions for low-income individuals and communities by providing a range of financial products and services that often are not available from mainstream lenders and financiers. ; Part I of this paper reviews CDLF origins, structures, and current activities. Part II discusses the field’s historic sources of subsidized capital and why they have shrunk. Part III reviews potential new sources of capital and the organizational ways that CDLFs are responding to their changed environment. The paper concludes with recommendations for CDLFs, funders, and policy makers.Community development ; Loans

New Jersey Charter Schools: A Data-Driven View, Part I

Policy makers cannot make informed decisions about the regulation of charter schools without first considering the characteristics of the students who are enrolled in these schools. This report -- the first in a three-part series on New Jersey charter schools -- uses publicly available data to explore the differences found between the student populations of charter schools and those of their host districts

What happened?: In New Jersey’s election, Democrats maintained control of the state, but redistricting could cause headaches for them in Congress

Last month New Jersey governor Phil Murphy won a second term, the first Democrat to do so in the Garden State for 44 years. Julia Sass Rubin takes a close look at the results of the off-year election, which saw a Republican red wave in some parts of the state and Democratic gains in others. The state’s uneven electoral geography, she writes, could have important implications for Democratic control of Congress in the long term

The new markets tax credit program: a midcourse assessment

Tax credits ; Community development corporations ; Economic development