COMMUNITY BUILDERS: GETTING STARTED

Welcome to our resource area for community organizers—nonprofit leaders, economic development professionals, and government officials—and those looking to create aggregated pools of capital for local investing. Here, you will find a series of how-to guides and other resources that support you in catalyzing locally-sourced investments in local small businesses.
Community Builder Resources
Select a category:
Getting Started
Local investing can deliver more than just economic benefits. It can help attract or retain crucial businesses, like farms, retail stores, or conservation projects. Valuable relationships are created and deepened across the community as business owners, citizen...
Mobilizing Local Investors
It’s safe to say that local investing cannot happen without the participation of informed and motivated citizen investors. Approaching people to talk about money can be daunting. It can be hard to know who has money to invest, and difficult to broach the topic of...
Organizing Business Showcases
Once you have educated and inspired local investors, you need to help them connect with business owners with high-quality investing opportunities. This can happen naturally through ecosystem-related networking. For example, entrepreneurs may hear about your local...
Overview of Local Investing
As a community organizer that’s promoting local investing, you need to have a basic understanding of the nuts and bolts of the field. Local investing opportunities come in many forms, with varying degrees of complexity and risk. Broadly speaking, there are two main...