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Program Summary:
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The
Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), established in 1979 with
significant support from foundations and other funders, works to ensure
that every person can participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the
economy by bringing together community practice, public policy, and
private markets. It identifies promising ideas, tests and refines them as
demonstration projects in communities to find out what works, crafts
policies and products to help good ideas reach scale, provides technical
assistance to help with implementation, and fosters new markets to
achieve greater economic impact.
It focuses on state and local asset-building policy and statewide
microenterprise support organizations.
Partnering with both funders and
other intermediaries on various initiatives, CFED has done an increasing
amount of regranting in recent years with dollars provided by national
and local foundations and corporations.
Investment committees of experts in the field provide input on the
selection of grantees.
Three of CFED’s primary areas of work
in expanding economic opportunity for low income individuals and
communities are (1) asset building, (2) entrepreneurship, and (3)
economic development policy. It works closely with community
practitioners to identify effective ideas and practices, share them
widely on a national level, influence public policy to achieve greater
scale, and increasingly engage private sector and private markets to
deliver products and services. Its
core competencies include the ability to (1) research and identify effective
practices, (2) share these practices one-on-one and through technical
assistance and training sessions, (3) train the trainers, (4) engage in
regranting for product and service delivery innovation and other
purposes; and (5) structure and facilitate strategic convenings.
Accessible publications such as
effective practice bulletins are available on CFED’s web site and in hard
copy. In early 2006 seven
different initiatives involved capacity-building activities, and each
included an online community, structured peer networking conversations,
and the delivery of technical assistance.
A “train the trainers” initiative under a contract with the CDFI
Fund involves creating a group of professionals around the country who
are skilled in Native American Individual Development Account work. CFED developed the curriculum with two
Native American organizations.
Participants apply, receive training, get certified in their
ability to serve as trainers, and then do the training in their tribe or
region.
Comprehensive evaluations have been conducted on
national demonstration projects,
and evaluation is done of trainings, convenings, and other aspects
of CFED’s work. Varied methods are used, with external
evaluators involved in the larger demonstration efforts, and internal
evaluation conducted for smaller programs.
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