Asset Building and Community Development

Profound changes in global and national economies have produced gains for some but greater uncertainty for others, leaving substantial numbers of people living in poverty worldwide. Promoting a more prosperous and inclusive society requires innovative solutions that broaden the successful participation of all people in community and economic life. This is the focus of our Asset Building and Community Development program.

Stabilizing Income
Poverty is traditionally measured by a family's level of income. Income is influenced by education, access to opportunity, initiative and the availability of public-sector programs and support systems that provide stability for households. Our grant strategies aim to strengthen the systems that enable people to maintain a stable income—workforce development, job creation, land tenure, access to financial services, control over natural resources, social security, and similar kinds of support.

Promoting Vibrant Communities
Poverty is more than a lack of economic resources. It also encompasses marginalization, isolation, reduced security, and the inability to participate in decision making. People living in poverty have limited access to common resources such as health care, education, markets and land; and they are disproportionately exposed to and affected by unhealthy environments. To combat these circumstances, our work promotes vibrant communities that value diversity and deep relationships among their members, offer access to opportunities for viable livelihoods, restore and maintain healthy and sustainable environments in which they live and thrive, and support asset accumulation throughout the life cycle.

Building Assets
The foundation views wealth more broadly than savings, stock or property. We see wealth as a series of assets—resources that enable people to take control of their lives and participate in society in meaningful ways.

Our view of assets includes:

• Financial assets such as savings, investments, and equity in a home or business
• Natural resources that sustain livelihoods in rural communities
• Marketable skills that enable people to improve their earning power
• Public assets such as community philanthropic endowments, civic organizations, cultural spaces and public transportation systems
• Social assets that strengthen inclusion and collaborative problem solving in communities
• Effective community services and institutions to meet the reproductive health needs of women, men and youth, as well as to promote gender equity and participation in community life

The combination of assets and community vitality builds resilience by providing a base of resources for weathering crises and establishing the long-term stability and security that are required to achieve permanent reductions in poverty. Helping people build individual and shared assets is the primary goal of our work in this program both in the United States and other regions of the world.

Our work in Asset Building and Community Development is managed through two units:

• Community and Resource Development focuses on building communities that are economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. Such communities value diversity and fairness and offer all members broad access to opportunities to create and maintain viable livelihoods. They are places where people have a say in the fundamental decisions that affect their identities, their livelihoods and their environment. And, as places that foster both social connectedness and economic opportunity, they are able to provide the resources that can fundamentally alter the lives of marginalized individuals and vulnerable families. We do this by providing grants and other support that helps people acquire, protect, improve and manage resources—such as land, water, forests, wildlife and other natural assets—and build the organizational and networking capacity needed for participation in decision making at different levels. We also consider the unique challenges of both urban and rural communities and support the development of models that improve the quality of life in each.
  
  Fields
  

  Community Development
  Environment and Development
  Sexuality and Reproductive Health

• Economic Development assists low-income people with making enduring improvements in their lives by helping them to acquire and retain reliable employment that provides livable wages and to build and maintain financial assets. To achieve these goals, we support efforts to increase the supply of good jobs, assist low-income people to obtain marketable skills and the resources necessary to get and keep good jobs, increase access to a range of asset-building financial services, improve the functioning of housing markets, stimulate economic development, and promote public policies that encourage people to save over their lifetime. We use program-related investments to expand the foundation's philanthropic reach by making recoverable grants, loans, loan guarantees or equity investments.
  
  Fields
  

  Development Finance and Economic Security
  Workforce Development