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The Ford Foundation's Corporate Involvement Initiative
(Ford Partners)

The National Congress for Community Economic Development is engaged in a network of business associations and non-profit organizations committed to building innovative programs linking corporate America to low-income communities in win-win partnerships. Each of these programs is designed to foster market-driven joint venture investments and collaborations, profitable corporate-community ventures that lead to increased jobs, business growth, and individual wealth creation in low-income communities throughout the country.


  • Aspen Institute's Initiative for Social Innovation in Business (ISIB), is working to influence the curricula, teaching and research of business schools to better prepare the next generation of business leaders to think about the evolving global role of business in society.

  • Center For Corporate Citizenship At Boston College The Center for Corporate Citizenship provides leadership in establishing corporate citizenship as a business essential, so all companies act as economic and social assets to the communities they impact by integrating social interests with other core business objectives. Through its research, executive education, consultation and convenings on issues of corporate citizenship, The Center is the leading organization helping corporations define their role in the community.

  • Brody & Weiser, the Connecticut-based management-consulting firm that co-founded the Corporate Involvement Initiative, is working on foundation outreach, conducting research, overseeing the Initiative's Extranet and website, coordinating an annual partner convening and providing strategic counsel to the Ford Foundation.

  • Business Enterprise Trust, founded by Norman Lear and several prominent business leaders, is a national awards program that celebrates examples of business practices that combine sound management and social vision.

  • Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a business membership organization with over 1,400 member companies, BSR has created a program on Business and the Community that provides information and technical assistance to businesses interested in adopting corporate involvement best practices in community and economic development.

  • Committee for Economic Development (CED), engaged in policy research on macroeconomic and social issues, is implementing a five-city civic participation initiative to encourage business, community and government leaders to work together on a sustained basis to address issues of social and economic development in low-income urban neighborhoods.

  • The Conference Board, a business membership organization for over 50 years, has recently published "Building the Corporate Community Economic Development Team" and is forming a working group of companies focused on corporate community economic development.

  • Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), founded by Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, is piloting a training program to provide business and other development practitioners with new insights about the competitive advantages of inner city communities.

  • Jobs for the Future in partnership with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched the Employer Workforce Development Initiative. In eight demonstration sites throughout the country, this collaboration seeks to build the capacity of local chambers of commerce and NAM affiliates to help business meet its workforce development needs and low income individuals obtain good jobs with career pathways.

  • The Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise is developing case studies of corporate involvement in community and economic development and has conducted groundbreaking research on the potential of electronic banking in low-income communities.

  • Laufer Green Isaac is an award-winning public relations/ strategic marketing communications firm with a specialty practice of corporate involvement in community and economic development. Laufer Green Isaac is developing communication products/tools, conducting media outreach and providing strategic counsel to the CII partners and the Ford Foundation. (email LGI@lauferpr.com)

  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation's Neighborhood Franchise Project (LISC), is working with CDCs and franchisers to reduce the obstacles experienced by inner-city entrepreneurs in establishing franchises.

  • National Housing Trust (NHT) is working with banking and financial institutions to develop innovative financing solutions for seekers of low-income housing in underserved markets.

  • National Minority Supplier Development Council, a national network that links large corporations with minority-owned companies and, through its affiliated Business Consortium Fund, provides working capital loans to minority-owned firms throughout the United States in order to finance their contracts with Fortune 500 companies.

  • Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NRC), recently initiated a multi-site demonstration project to work with the insurance industry around loss mitigation strategies that would increase the affordability and availability of homeowners insurance for low-income households.

  • NetImpact aims to foster interest and leadership among business school students in corporate social responsibility and to promote the inclusion of related training in business school curriculum.

  • The Shorebank Corporation, a leader in the community development financial field for more than two decades, has developed the first and only comprehensive market-driven database on urban markets, providing business with vital market intelligence.

  • Social Compact, an association of leaders in the financial services industry, is developing new assessment tools to help executives understand the business potential of underserved inner city markets.
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