Background Study: Community Development Finance (CDF)

This study has been conducted in order to provide information for the community economic development corporations (CDCs) in urban British Columbia (BC) to consider as they create their development strategies.

• The purpose of the study was to find out:
  • How do CDCs organize themselves to carry out comprehensive approaches to address local socio-economic issues?
  • How do CDCs sustain their development functions over time?
  • What role does a program to support CDF plays as part of a strategy for sustaining the development functions of the CDCs over time?
• The study method was:
  • Review of the literature;
  • Review of policy issues;
  • Case studies of CDCs in British Columbia, USA and Canada.

The study provides an overview of CDF. It states that the Centre for Community enterprises defines CDF as the provision of investment capital for the purpose of enhancing the socio-economic conditions of a specific location/ community. It lists the following three factors of CDF:

• The target locality may involve a network of communities and, thus, comprise an entire sub region;
• CDF does not involve a particular organizational structure or context;
• The most important CDF institutions (CDFIs) are usually engaged in other activities besides offering equity and credit resources.

The paper then discusses:

• History of CDF in the USA and Canada;
• Policy issues facing CDF in Canada and British Columbia;
• Introduction to the CDFIs case studies;
• Case studies of various organizations.

The paper concludes by listing the lessons learned from the case studies research.