NC3 co-presented with Crowdfund Better this month at the IEDC Economic Future Forum in Spokane, Washington. Kathleen Minogue and Chris Miller conducted a session on Democratizing Community Development, where they presented information about the work both organizations are doing and took the room through an interactive community capital project development process simulation.
In addition to their presentation, Kathleen and Chris had several in-depth conversations with folks who’d arranged for a meet-up ahead of time or some who struck up conversations and were intrigued by the introduction of our work and its benefits. In those conversations and the formal presentation, a number of real-world examples were presented—including the pending launch of a Diversified Community Investment Fund (DCIF) by Local Return in Rhode Island—and some telling data, including the significantly lower rate of failures for community-funded businesses versus those funded by traditional capital sources. The presentation also included this quote from one of the NC3 founding board members, Janice Shade, now CEO and Founder of Capital Innovation Lab on Community Investment Funds:
“Community Investment Funds (CIFs) fill a critical gap in a region’s capital landscape. Guided by their investors’ relationship to and lived experience within a community, CIFs go where angels (and banks) fear to tread; because they see opportunity and need where traditional capital providers see only risk. By providing that missing source of ‘possibility capital,’ CIFs facilitate local economic resilience and prosperity for all.”
