Diffusion and Scaling of Local Philanthropy

Place-based funders already support housing production and affordability in many jurisdictions nationwide. What is needed now are national efforts to scale and multiply the impact of these scattered initiatives. Concentrated advocacy, education, and technical assistance could encourage dozens of philanthropic organizations to launch new housing initiatives or expand their current housing work for greater impact.

Specific ideas for enabling place-based philanthropy to expand its ability to convene, catalyze policy change, and deploy impact capital to spur housing production include:

• Working with intermediaries such as the Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON) and Mission Investors Exchange to spread awareness of how place-based philanthropy can support housing production, showcasing promising case studies and practices from across the country.
• Supporting technical assistance targeted at local community foundations ready to engage in housing, particularly in places where local political leaders are also committed to and engaged in implementing necessary policy and changes, such as the other ideas outlined in the Task Force’s State and Local Action Plan.
• Educating private foundations about the potential of housing-focused impact investment vehicles. CFGA served as both a supplier and aggregator of capital from other local placebased funders, we expect that Community Foundations and other place-based philanthropy will play a similar role in many other communities.
• Creating model fund prospectuses and investment evaluation criteria that can be replicated and widely disseminated.