The potential of private equity investment in emerging domestic markets to deliver strong financial returns while also giving rise to public benefits has drawn the attention of both venture and economic development capital, as well as policymakers and researchers. Ratcliffe examines this...

The CDFI Fund has used the CIIS database to collect organization, financial, and impact data annually from award recipients. This article discusses all aspects of CIIS with a particular focus on the transaction level data as a unique and long-awaited data set for the investors and researchers...

The Small Business Portfolio Evaluator™ analytical model helps issuers and underwriters to assess the gross default and prepayment risk of small business loan portfolios using a Monte Carlo simulation. This new tool provides an important first step to securitizing existing community...

It is difficult for large investors, such as pension funds, to make investments in EDMs because they must make very large investments. The investments in communities of need, however, are usually small. The most successful strategy to overcome these two problems is for investors to work in...

The “electronic marketplace” allows participating buyers and sellers to exchange information about market prices and product offerings, with a goal to establish buyer-seller relationships. This article explores how to foster these relationships with community development lenders and investors.

Developing investor-quality analysis could trigger a tremendous increase in donations to community development nonprofits from philanthropic sources. Bamberger and Gross survey existing analysis tools and make suggestions for a better one.

Urban residents are more likely than their suburban counterparts to be underserved by retail services. The implications for urban residents and urban communities are far reaching. Recent research has shown that the costs of the basics—such as food, clothing, and even insurance—are often...

Mercil explains how angel investors can be an important source for venture financing in rural areas. In particular, he focuses on the RAIN Fund Network—an innovative model for rural investors to pool skills, knowledge, and capital to invest in local companies.

Growing local companies is essential to the economic prosperity for many rural regions and residents. Rural economies, however, rarely attract traditional venture capital. Given the important role that patient capital plays in entrepreneurial development, the future economic vitality of rural...

State governments – particularly those in “fly-over states” – are supporting state-sponsored investment funds that try to attract investments in local companies in an effort to keep workers and capital from fleeing their states.