Community Ventures is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that grew out of Michael Shuman’s book, Going Local: Creating Self-reliant Communities in a Global Age (hardcover by Free Press, 1998; paperback by Routledge, 2000).   The book elaborates principles and policies for community economic development through the support of locally owned small businesses that are rooted in and dedicated to the communities where they are located and that prevent leakage of local dollars.

Community Ventures was set up to put the principles of Going Local into practice on multiple fronts.

It helps states, counties, cities, towns, and neighborhoods achieve greater economic prosperity through self-reliance, ownership, and empowerment.

The following are descriptions of Community Ventures’ programs:

Community Food Enterprise

Program Manager: Alissa Barron

Program Co-Directors: Michael Shuman and John Fisk

Graphic Designer: Charles Huerth

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this program’s purpose is to conduct research and education regarding the local ownership of food enterprise as a pathway to prosperity.  The program has the following objectives:

  • Produce a practitioner’s guide consisting of case studies from the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Each case study will paint a full picture of a distinct local food enterprise – its origins, operations, successes and failures, tradeoffs, economic and social outcomes, and aspects in need of further development.
  • Conduct an outreach and communications campaign that engages opinion leaders, community groups, planners and entrepreneurs worldwide and builds a global brain trust for advancing the design and application of community food enterprise models.
  • Build a dynamic, online resource to inform and link practitioners worldwide, including an open-source system for collecting and sharing examples of community food enterprises.

Black/Land Project

Program Manager: Mistinguette Smith

The Black/Land Project gathers, facilitates and shares conversations about the current relationship between black people, land, and place in order to share their powerful traditions of resourcefulness, resilience, and regeneration.

East Bay Community Localization Fund

Program Manager: Ann Bartz

East Bay Community Localization Fund is a grassroots group of residents, nonprofits, businesses, and other stakeholders in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, California, that work to explore innovative ways to keep money and resources circulating in the local economy. Activities include economic research and development of a Think Local First cooperative.

Energy Cooperative Education and Research

Program Manager: Michael Kennedy

This program’s purpose is to develop models for providing affordable, sustainably produced, and local sources of energy through the consumer cooperative form.  The ultimate goal is to conduct the research and program development necessary to create a national network of local consumer cooperatives that promote greater local self-reliance in energy and other basic human needs.  A pilot cooperative, Maryland Energy & Sustainability Co-op (www.nrg.coop), has been initiated in Maryland.

Entrepreneur Commons Mutual Guarantee Fund

Program Manager: Marc Dangeard

The Entrepreneur Commons Mutual Guarantee Fund will provide peer funding for disadvantaged entrepreneurs in partnership with a community bank.

Local Economy Institute

Program Director: Kelley Rajala

The Local Economy Institute is the non-profit arm of the Share Exchange working on a bridge to the next economy — the People’s Economy, the Relationship Economy, a Holistic, Fair & Just Economy.

Their work aims to help communities rebuild strong, vibrant local economies — particularly small communities or rural geographic regions. Their work includes:

  • Research – Round Tables, Think Tanks, White Papers
  • Community Engagement & Awareness Raising – Speaker and Film Series, Community Mapping
  • Training & Skill Development – Workshops, Peer-to-Peer Learning Groups, Certification Programs

They offer services in the following topic areas:

  • Local Economics
  • Business & Organizational Development
  • Environmental Sustainability & Quality of Life

New Avenue Fund

Program Manager: Kevin Casey

The Berkeley Green Home Project  is a prototype net zero energy cottage currently under construction.  The purpose of the project is to demonstrate a viable model for infill development to accommodate California’s projected demand for 2,000,000 additional homes in the next ten years while preventing unsustainable sprawl.

The Berkeley Green Home project is sponsored by New Avenue (www.newavenuehomes.com), the William J. Clinton Foundation, and the Berkeley Center for Environmental Innovation.

NextNow Collaboratory – eGovColab and Midway Journey

Program Managers: Claudia Welss, Eileen Clegg, and Manuel Maqueda

eGovColab provides thought leadership in the use of technology to foster collaboration in government.

Midway Journey is a multi-media project whose purpose is to raise awareness about plastic pollution.

Presidio Alumni Organization

Program Manager: Michelle Miller

The Presidio Alumni Organization is the place for graduates of Presidio School of Management’s Green MBA Program to share information and collaborate on projects.

Project LEAF

Program Managers: Melanie Wartenberg and Kristoffer Koster

Project LEAF is a community grassroots organization of residents in Alameda, California who are working to acquire and develop the “Old Island High site” (an abandoned school site that has been closed down for 5+ years) into a community garden/farm and new green space for an underserved neighborhood and the wider community.

Relocalization Fund

Program Managers: David France and Derek Huntington

This project funds a grass roots group of business and residents in Sonoma County, California, to explore innovative ways to keep money and resources in the local economy.  Activities include the development of a Think Local First marketing cooperative and an alternative currency system.

Rooted Foods

Program Manager: Betsy Power

Intern: Kitty Brosnan

The purpose of Rooted Foods is to provide broad-based education regarding the value of authentic, traditional, native foods.  Food products are evaluated according to objective criteria by a team of experts.  Foods that meet the Rooted Foods criteria are eligible to join the Rooted Foods network.  Rooted Foods members must be locally-owned, operate in a manner that benefits workers and the local community, grow or purchase ingredients directly from local farmers, produce foods that have are rooted in the tradition of the region where they are produced, and minimize negative environmental impacts through practices such as organic farming and recycling.

SPIRAL Sonoma

Program Manager: Tucker Hemquist

SPIRAL Sonoma is dedicated to (1) improving the viability of small-scale disadvantaged farms by providing research and educational resources to farmers and organizations that support local sustainable food production and (2) educating lower income populations about the health benefits of local, seasonal produce.

SPIRAL Sonoma seeks to create an education center and demonstration farm and to provide resources for farmers wishing to form cooperatives.

Engaging and educating the community will result in the creation of replicable models that allow rural communities to foster sustainable distribution systems, assist small disadvantaged local farms, reduce the cost of local produce, and empower individuals to become active participants in the security of their food system.

Sustainable Economies Law Center

Program Manager: Janelle Orsi

The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) facilitates the growth of sustainable, localized, and just economies, through legal research, professional training, resource development, and education about practices such as:

  • Cooperatives
  • Community-supported enterprises
  • Barter
  • Sharing
  • Local currencies
  • Intentional communities, ecovillages, cohousing, co-op housing, and limited-equity housing
  • Urban agriculture
  • Community-based renewable energy
  • Community land trusts
  • Social enterprise
  • Local investing
  • Co-op banks/credit unions

Timebanking Training Initiative

Program Managers: Linda Hogan and Terry Daniels

In partnership with hOurworld, this initiative provides training to communities interested in starting and growing timebanking programs.