Reaching New Heights - Trends in Community Economic Development
National Congress of Community Economic Development
NCCED released its Fifth National Census.The report "Reaching New Heights", measures the quantitative achievements of community-based development organizations. The new census--the fifth since 1988--records significant increases in the number of homes and apartments produced, commercial and industrial space developed, and jobs created by community development organizations.
A handful of CDCs are large organizations --- one group in the survey reported 1,100 employees.
The median CDC, according to this census, has 10 paid employees, an 11-member board of directors, and incorporated in 1987.
The increase in CDC housing production during this census period was impressive.
The census does include housing totals from large, nonprofit housing producers, including organizations which work in multiple states.
Until the mid-1990s, relatively few CDCs developed industrial parks, commercial and retail space, office buildings or community facilities.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the community development field began to attract new money from state and local governments, foundations, banks, corporations, and religious organizations.
A major innovation was the establishment of national and local intermediary organizations to advocate for and coordinate those resources.
Intermediaries also supply technical assistance to CDCs, and create networks to strengthen CDCs as organizations.
The data gathered for the 2005 census makes it possible to explore trends in private funding for CDCs broken down by CDC service areas.
(Some organizations reported that they were not community development groups). To estimate the total number of CDCs nationwide, the research team conducted a telephone survey of groups which had not responded to the survey. Based on the 180 respondents to that follow up, the team estimated the universe of CDCs to be approximately 4,600. This is also the methodology used to carry out the 1998 census. To be consistent with prior reports, and thereby have consistent data for comparison purposes, Habitat for Humanity organizations were not counted in this census. Habitat groups are a major nonprofit producer of affordable housing for low and moderate income persons, but they fall outside the purview of this census. For the first time, the census collected comprehensive data on faith-based CDCs. This strategy was part of the follow-up to our efforts in 1998, when NCCED included a couple of questions to determine how many CDCs considered themselves to be faith-based and what religious denomination played a role in organizing and establishing their presence in the community. The results of those efforts spurred the desire for a more complete picture of faith-based CDCs and a separate section of the questionnaire was devoted to faith-based CDCs. We believed that the data collected through these questions would provide a better understanding of faith-based CDCs, their continued connection with the religious institutions that created them, and how they compare to non-faith-based CDCs. This report includes comprehensive data on faith-based, community-based development groups for the first time anywhere. This data offers significant opportunities for continuing research by NCCED and other national organizations, and we encourage further work in surveying the community economic development field.
