Anchor Institutions

Report Proposes Ways to Measure Colleges’ Impact on Communities

Andy Thomason

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Universities need better ways to measure their impact on surrounding communities, according to a new report.

“The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practice to Meet Low-Income Community Needs,” released on Tuesday by the Democracy Collaborative, a research center at the University of Maryland at College Park, seeks to provide the basis for such a methodology in the form of a broad set of goals for communities and indicators of progress toward those goals.

The report’s “dashboard” consists of 12 desired societal outcomes that “anchor” institutions like universities can work toward, including affordable housing, educated young people, and a healthy environment. The report also offers specific ways to measure the progress being made toward each goal. For example, the amount of money an anchor institution spends on helping local residents file their income taxes can serve as an indicator for the goal of financially secure households.

Report Proposes Ways to Measure Colleges’ Impact on Communities

Andy Thomason

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Universities need better ways to measure their impact on surrounding communities, according to a new report.

Building Community Wealth: An Action Plan for Northwest Jacksonville

Steve Dubb and David Zuckerman

This report, prepared by the Democracy Collaborative and submitted to the City of Jacksonville, Florida, highlights key strategic opportunities to leverage existing assets to build wealth in a neighborhood facing concentrated poverty and disinvestment.

Building Community Wealth across the Pond

Submitted by violeta on June 2nd, 2014

City in United Kingdom develops new Community Wealth Building Initiative

The broad appeal of the ‘Cleveland Model’ and of community wealth building in general is becoming evident in a growing number of communities around the country, and—increasingly—overseas as well. Read more about Building Community Wealth across the Pond...

How to Grow an Equitable Economy through Anchor Institution Strategies

Research director Steve Dubb presented on anchor institution strategies and equitable development for a PolicyLink webinar in April 2014. Read more about How to Grow an Equitable Economy through Anchor Institution Strategies...

New Student Initiative Asks Anchor Institutions to Rethink their Communities

Submitted by sarah on March 27th, 2014

An Interview with Alan Smith of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network

The Democracy Collaborative recently sat down with Alan Smith of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network to talk about their new Rethinking Communities Initiative. Inspired by the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Roosevelt Institute promotes the work of progressive economist and social policy thinkers and supports the next generation of leaders as they design solutions to current pressing issues. Their Campus Network is the nation’s largest student policy organization with 115 chapters at colleges and universities in 38 states, working to further progressive ideas, civic leadership, and long-term change

Creating Jobs by Building Community Wealth

Our research director Steve Dubb is joined by REDF's Carla Javits for a conversation around "Big Ideas for Job Creation" at the Aspen Institute, focusing on transforming anchor institution procurement to strengthen local economies and using social enterprise to create employment opportunities.

The Rise of the Anchor Institution: Setting Standards for Success

Aaron Bartley

Huffington Post

Aaron Bartley, co-founder of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), describes the growing use of anchor-based economic development strategies and recommends the Collaborative’sAnchor Dashboard as a tool for universities to measure their community impact.

Key Community Benefit Terms

Across the country, nonprofit hospitals are beginning to comply with a new federal requirement that they partner with community and public health representatives to identify and develop strategies for addressing community health needs. This requirement, found in the Affordable Care Act, builds on the best practices of leading hospitals and hospital systems that already strategically invest resources and build partnerships with community groups and public health leaders to improve community health. This one-page provides definitions for important terms to know.

Community Benefit and Anchor Institutions: Linkages and Opportunities

This webinar, organized by Community Catalyst and the Democracy Collaborative, explored how community benefit requirements, especially in the wake of new Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations governing Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA), can provide a powerful and effective framework to drive transformative community economic development.

Why Eds and Meds Matter for Community Economic Development

Submitted by sarah on December 4th, 2013

A response to Richard Florida's recent article in Atlantic Cities

Crossposted from Rooflines: The Shelterforce Blog

A recent article in Atlantic Cities by Richard Florida, titled "Where 'Eds and Meds' Industries Could Become a Liability," has caused a bit of a stir. The article warns that relying on anchor institutions such as local universities and hospitals (also known as “eds and meds”) for economic development is chancy.

The Anchor Dashboard at the Department of Housing and Urban Development

In November, the Democracy Collaborative's Ted Howard and Sarah McKinley, along with Charles Rutheiser of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, presented The Anchor Dashboard as part of a national webcast at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ted Howard at the 2013 MAS Summit for NYC

Democracy Collaborative Executive Director Ted Howard was invited to moderate this discussion on the role of anchor insitutions at the Municipal Art Society's annual gathering. Read more about Ted Howard at the 2013 MAS Summit for NYC...

Oberlin College Adopts Impact Investing Platform

Submitted by dave on November 13th, 2013

Likely largest higher education commitment to social investing in nation to date

A few weeks ago, Oberlin College, with an endowment of nearly $700 million, adopted what is likely the largest impact-investing platform to date by a college or university in the United States. Although Oberlin is just one institution, the decision provides a hopeful sign of an accelerating institutional shift toward greater socially responsible investment practices. A tremendous opportunity exists. Higher education as a sector controls more than $400 billion in endowment assets.

Will Our Universities Rekindle Their Public Purpose?

Submitted by sarah on November 5th, 2013

Anchor institution movement restores sense of public mission

Crossposted from Rooflines: The Shelterforce Blog

America’s colleges and universities are at a crossroads. For all too many students, a college education has become a major economic gamble. Over the past three decades, inflation-adjusted tuition has more than doubled at both public and private universities. Meanwhile, professors are harder to find: tenured and tenure-track professors have gone from roughly 45 percent of all teaching staff to less than a quarter since 1975. In short, students and their parents pay much more for much less faculty time.

The Rise of Community Wealth Building Institutions

Submitted by sarah on October 16th, 2013

More people are turning to economic alternatives in which new wealth is built collectively and from the bottom up

Crossposted from Policy Network, and later published on the London School of Economics website, this blog is part of a debate event hosted by Policy Network in London, UK, that was reviewed in OurKingdom by grassroots activist James Doran:

Five years after the financial crisis economic inequality in the United States is spiraling to levels not seen since the Gilded Age. While most Americans are experiencing a recovery-less recovery, the top one per cent of earners last year claimed 19.3 per cent of household income, their largest share since 1928. Moreover, income distribution looks positively egalitarian when compared to wealth ownership.

Boulder Gains Momentum in Fight for Green Public Utility

Submitted by dave on September 5th, 2013

Local campaign seeks to hold back corporate efforts to undo election results

Green. Local. Not-for-profit. That’s the goal in Boulder, Colorado where grassroots activists and the local nonprofit New Era Colorado Foundation have been campaigning to turn the city’s private power source into a public utility in order to more aggressively pursue renewable energy options and reduce carbon emissions. Read more about Boulder Gains Momentum in Fight for Green Public Utility...

Achieving The Anchor Promise: Improving Outcomes for Low-Income Children, Families and Communities

Steve Dubb, Sarah McKinley and Ted Howard

This report, the companion to our The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practice to Meet Low-Income Community Needs, presents the research behind the framework we have designed to assist anchor institutions in measuring their community impact.

Download the report and learn more about our work to help anchors measure their impact on community wealth.

Ted Howard speaks at the St. Louis Federal Reserve

In a four-city event on "Community Development in Times of Austerity," hosted by the St. Louis Federal Reserve and broadcast nationally via streaming video, Democracy Collaborative Executive Director Ted Howard presented the community wealth building model as the new paradigm of sustainable economic development.

How Nonprofit Institutions Can Improve Local Economies

Submitted by dave on May 29th, 2013

MIT, UMCP release University Hospitals case study

Can a hospital’s economic development strategy do more to heal a city than its emergency room? This question was at the core of a MIT-University of Maryland (UMCP) case study of University Hospitals’ (UH) Vision 2010 program in Cleveland, Ohio.

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