I'd like to know options for how interested individuals in the community can invest money in a local community development program. Ideas, please.

updated by @julie-weatherford: 10/24/16 04:45:18PM

This is a good question. I imagine there's some pretty standard ways it could be done, like donating to nonprofit development programs, but from an ABCD perspective a few things come to mind, for me:

- In my experience, a lot of community development programs focus primarily on top-down, institution-oriented strategies. You could research local ones and try to determine which are being innovative about acting in support of citizen initiatives, investing directly in citizens (ie. do they think of creative ways to purchase, celebrate, or otherwise connect with what small business owners or entrepreneurs are creating in their own neighborhood?)? Do they come up with their strategies in partnership with citizens, with citizens at the table in authentic leadership roles (ie. not 'giving input' but actually making decisions alongside them)?

Additionally, you might check out what citizen associations are active in your community. That can be a little more challenging to locate than your community development org, but might be worth it... there might be some kind of alliance or faith-based initiatives that contribute greatly to the community but are not broadly advertised.. and there are probably opportunities for donation there as well.

That's all my ideas for now... Would love to hear others'!

-A

Hi

Framework wise, when working with a community in Nairobi, they were using a merry go round scheme where by they would collectively save money and then nominate one member of the savings group to loan the money to at a low interest rate. When the loan was repaid with the interest, another member of the group was nominated and so on. I'm pretty sure this is used in the UK too and no doubt it could work with outside investment.

Imogen

Thanks for sharing this idea, Imogen. It sounds like a good one.

Thanks, April, for these good ideas.