Dear Colleague,

• We join in the celebration of the 25^th annual Community Foundation Week with the release of our most recent report, A New Anchor Mission for a New Century: Community Foundations Deploying All Resources to Build Community Wealth, authored by Democracy Collaborative Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly and Community Development Associate Violeta Duncan. I hope you will join Kelly and Duncan on December 4 for a free webinar, where they will discuss their findings. Read more below.

• Last month, we launched our Anchor Dashboard Learning Cohort, which includes SUNY Buffalo State; Cleveland State University; Drexel University; Rutgers University – Newark; The University of Memphis; and the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Building off the framework from our Anchor Dashboard report, this group of universities will work together to measure their impact in communities, and share results, challenges and successes.

• Community wealth building strategies are gaining attention across the nation as well as internationally. In the Center for American Progress’ TalkPoverty blog, I discuss the need for a new federal policy strategy to help cities leverage the economic might of their anchor institutions to benefit communities. Journalist Tanvi Misra also discusses anchors as a place-based community revitalization strategy in an article in The Atlantic’s CityLab. In an openDemocracy article, University of Oxford political theorist Stuart White notes the role that community wealth building can have as a potential solution to widening inequality. Fast Company magazine celebrates Thunder Valley Community Economic Development Corporation, a participant in our Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building from the Pine Ridge Reservation, for its Regenerative Community Plan.

• In a Truthout article, Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz argued that in the face of national political stalemate and economic stagnation, local communities can set the foundations for far-reaching wealth-democratizing strategies. In an Al Jazeera article, Gar emphasized the role of broad movements and new economic institutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen global warming. Gar explored challenges presented by climate change at the Praxis Institute’s Economics of Sustainability Conference and discussed community wealth building at La Montanita Co-op’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.