New from The Democracy Collaborative
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On January 29, The Democracy Collaborative hosted a convening, in partnership with the CUNY School of Law Community and Economic Development Clinic and the Surdna Foundation, highlighting innovative city leaders working to build more inclusive, equitable, and cooperative economies. The event brought together mayors, city officials, community development experts, researchers, and activists for dynamic discussions around how to build and scale these efforts. Panelists and speakers included Mayor Lovely Warren, City of Rochester (NY); Mayor Paul Soglin, City of Madison (WI); Speaker Carl Heastie, New York State Assembly; Director of Economic Development Tracey Nichols, City of Cleveland; editor of the American Prospect, Harold Meyerson, and many others. Read a detailed recap of the event on our blog and watch the panel conversations online.
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The thirty-eighth in our Community Wealth Cities series is Burlington, Vermont. Although it is the economic and educational engine of the state, Burlington has a relatively high poverty rate and is facing the challenge of steadily rising housing costs. However, the city is also home to many community wealth building groups and institutions—many of which emerged due to the efforts of former Burlington Mayor and current United States Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Burlington is home to the country’s most advanced community land trust and one of the greenest municipally-owned electric utilities in the nation, which serves over 19,600 customers from completely renewable sources. Burlington also houses the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC), a statewide nonprofit that provides technical assistance and financial support through a revolving loan fund to businesses transitioning to employee ownership.
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Research Highlights How Employee Stock Ownership Plans Can Reduce Income Inequality
This new paper from Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, finds that Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) can be an important tool to address income inequality and that workers at ESOP companies tend to have more equal wage distributions. Bernstein makes two recommendations for expanding ESOPs—creating a small government agency to help firms transition to employee ownership and only awarding tax breaks to companies with some form of employee ownership.
Read the full paper
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Pension Plans Offer Significant Opportunity for Impact Investing
While pension plans have traditionally prioritized financial outcomes over other measures of success, an increasing number of plans are integrating social goals into economically targeted investments (ETIs). This new research brief highlights model public and private pension plans and synthesizes best practices, such as maintaining a clear and strategic focus, partnering with local non-profits, and integrating outside subsidies or partnerships with government entities to grow investments. The authors estimate gains from such an approach could direct more than $250 billion in capital toward the impact investing marketplace.
Read the full report
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New Book from CFED & Federal Reserve Bank Explores Conditions of Financial Health
“The effects of the recession are still being felt by many families, particularly those that had very little in savings and other assets beforehand,” notes Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Janet Yellen in her foreword to a new book from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED). What It’s Worth emphasizes the importance of building financial health and well-being so families can become more resilient to economic downturns and build wealth. Bringing together over 30 essays, the book takes a holistic look at financial well-being, emphasizing the linkages to other fields such as education, health, housing and workforce training.
See more about the book
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Report Identifies Ways to Scale Social Enterprise
This new report from REDF synthesizes lessons from ten in-depth case studies of social enterprises that work to dissolve barriers to employment, including a full case study on our partners at the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, OH. Drawing on the examples studied, the REDF report identifies five core drivers that have helped these mission-driven businesses—which collectively employ 10,190 people and generate $153 million in annual revenue—including anchors, audacity of business models, evidence, growth capital, and identity. In order to scale the movement, the authors recommend investment in developing the business acumen of social enterprise leaders and advocating for policies such as incentivizing public procurement by minority- and women-owned business.
Read the case studies
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The Co-Op Water Cooler, a project of Currency Marketing and 6th Story, aims to aggregate and elevate news and editorial comment related to cooperatives. Experts in the co-op field serve as editors, curating a list of weekly links with relevant articles on trends in the field, marketing, social media, technology, and success stories. The editors also maintain a blog on big picture issues facing the cooperative community. Individuals can sign up to receive updates via email or RSS feed, or follow on twitter to receive the latest articles. Learn more at http://www.coopwatercooler.com
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Becoming Employee Owned is a web resource created by Workers to Owners, a national collaborative of finance institutions, cooperative developers, employee ownership advocates, legal professionals and other service providers, convened by the Democracy at Work Institute. Becoming Employee Owned includes resources from these various fields and provides tools for companies interested in converting to worker ownership. The site includes case studies, a calendar of training and events, lists of service providers by location, and the opportunity to sign up for a free consultation. Learn more at http://becomingeo.org/
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