This document discusses models of asset-based community development from Europe and beyond, including community foundations, development trusts, and community land trusts. It provides examples of these models from various countries and regions. The key benefits of asset-based community development models are that they are locally driven and sustainable, addressing economic, social and environmental issues in communities. However, challenges include accessing start-up capital and developing necessary skills. The document questions how these approaches could be applied and what might facilitate their development in the context of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

1. Hostedby:
Fundedby:
COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
AND ASSET BASED
DEVELOPMENT: MODELS FROM
EUROPE AND BEYOND
Angus McCabe
Third Sector Research Centre; University Of
Birmingham
CSRDG: Tbilisi 5th April 2013

2. THIS SESSION WILL……
• Explore:
Different Community Trust models from across Europe:
Community Foundations, Land Trusts, Development
Trusts, Transition Towns…….
What asset based community development does?
Why asset based models of community economic
development?
Funding: what’s different?
Benefits, opportunities and challenges
What does this mean in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan?

3. WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
• An asset based approach to
community/economic development including:
Community Foundations
Development Trusts (DTs)
Community Land Trusts (CLTs)
Community Development Finance (CDFI)
Other models: Transition Towns/cashless
economies etc.

4. A SHORT HISTORY
• First Community Foundation: Cleveland Ohio – 1914
• UK – origins in 1970’s
• Post Soviet Foundations – 1991 onwards
• Development and Community Land Trusts
 Origins in the ‘enclosure of the commons’ C18th/C19th;
industrialisation and transfer of ‘common/shared land’ to private
ownership
 C19th movement; land trusts to house industrial workers (model
villages – Cadbury family in Birmingham/Joseph Rowntree in York) and
Common’s Preservation Societies (parks and woodlands)
 US origins in 1960’s and Institute of Community Economics

5. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
: MISSION AND MODELS
• Mainly US and EU model (European Foundation Centre
established 1989: 23 in Germany, 5 in Turkey, 4 in Russia, 3
Ukraine)
• UK/European model differs from US – greater reliance on
Foundations created by individuals (Bill Gates)
Vary in:
 income (few thousand £/$) to multi-million investment/endowment
portfolios
 scope/scale (some with paid staff – others – volunteer
origins/continued reliance on volunteers)
 population coverage across Europe: from (rural) – few thousand
population Birmingham/Black Country – 2.25 million

6. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS;
MISSION
Mission:
Co-ordination of funding/resources for maximum community
benefit
 Combining corporate giving, philanthropy, individual giving
and ‘through funding’ (eg EU/Government and aid funds)
 Developing ‘matched funding’ models to enhance
effectiveness (UK Challenge model)
 Attract international corporation sponsorship (usually only
in counties/areas where corporations are operating
(www.alcoa.com) - Hungary
 ‘100 Clubs’

7. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS:
ADVANTAGES
 Strategic co-ordination of funding – ‘co-ordinated philanthropy’
 Maximising impact and effectiveness: donor and beneficiary
 Transparency in decision making
 Beyond ‘pre-set’ government/aid/grant giving agendas
 Local intelligence (what works) and ‘efficiency/impact’ advice
 Funding innovation: new projects and approaches beyond ‘the
established’
 Long term relationships between donors, Foundations and
beneficiaries – a developmental relationship – not fund and monitor
 INITIAL EVIDENCE: surviving the economic climate better than
‘traditional’ funders (despite decline in corporate and
individual/philanthropic giving and corporate sponsorship

8. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
EXAMPLES: 1
• UK – Birmingham and the Black Country Community
Foundation: disability, access to education and
training, environment, family support - in 2010-11 grants of
£1.8 million to 511 groups
• Poland – 32 Foundations with combined assets of $508
million (network founded 1998)
• Priorities
 development of local communities
 youth involvement
 senior citizens
 corporate community involvement
 social enterprise

9. COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS:
EXAMPLES: 2
• Romania – 2 Foundations: Cluj & Oderheiu Community
Foundations: Example -Youth Bank- youth
engagement, education and cultural activities (15,000 ROM);
mainly volunteer based
• Ukraine – collective assets of around $500,000: focus on
people trafficking, rural-urban migration, cancer, media
reform
• Hungary: well developed – but some very small/volunteer
based groups (Ferencvaros Community Foundation – 2009 –
start up phase to 2011 – income 32,000 euros)
• Networked model: Poland – Slovakia (Association of Slovak
Community Foundations)

10. USEFUL WEBSITES
• Charles Stuart Mott Foundation: www.mott.org
• Alliance Organisation (Eastern Europe)
www.alliancemagazine.org (but subscription only)
• European Foundation Centre: www.efc.be
• Global Fund for Community Foundations:
www.globalfundcommunityfoundations.org
• Community Foundations Network:
http://ukcommunityfoundations.org
• NOTE- quality and currency of information on
Community Foundations variable (assets/activity etc)

11. COMMUNITY LAND AND
DEVELOPMENT TRUSTS
• Promote community ownership of local assets;
initiatives range from;
Affordable housing schemes
Managed workspace and employment training
Green energy programmes (from power generation, to
recycling)
Land management (forestry) and food production
Village shops/the ‘pub is the hub’ (Culture House model in
Eastern Europe?)
Or…own your local football club!!!

12. WHY ASSET BASED
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 1
• Principles: Community Foundations,
Community Land/Development Trusts;
Are locally driven, controlled and accountable
Meet local needs (flexible and responsive)
Address economic, social and environmental
issues (social benefit)
Involve partnership solutions across sectors
Are sustainable (beyond grants/aid/policy
changes) – ‘in perpetuity’

13. WHY ASSET BASED
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 2
• Practical:
Cuts to international aid – ending of a ‘grant’ culture
Cuts in the EU to government support for NGO’s and
community services
Working ‘beyond the state and the market’
Reaction to globalisation – and/or World Bank interest in
asset based community development (Africa)
Reaction to privatisation of local economies and services

14. SIZE, SCOPE AND NUMBERS
• Range from small scale, one off, initiatives to multi-
million £ programmes
• Can involve paid staff or rely on volunteers
• Mixed finance models: trading/grants/loans etc
• The numbers: 54 Community Foundations in UK
• Just over 100 Community Land Trusts (240 in USA)
and 150 Development Trusts
• 458 Transition Towns globally
• Context - over 172,000 registered charities in
England and Wales

15. OTHER MODELS
• Transition Towns: promote local economic
activity (non-corporate) in terms of food
production, ‘shopping’ and energy supply
• Alternative ‘cash’ systems – Totnes £,
• Brixton £ and Local Exchange Trading Schemes
(LETS)
• The Anarchist solution: Denmark, Slovenia etc:
occupation of disused State buildings to set up
alternative economic systems

16. DEVELOPMENT TRUSTS

17. COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

18. FINANCE MODELS
Community Foundations/Asset Based Development requires a
different financial/business model:
 Start up/feasibility grants/money – yes but;
 Loans (commercial or Community Development Finance
Initiatives) as well as grants
 Asset transfer (no/low/commercial) cost
 Community shares
 Endowments
 Remittances (£23billion UK – payments back to country of origin – £123
billion Russia/US to Georgia)
 Community bonds
 Cross-subsidy
 Crowd funding

19. EXAMPLES

20. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
• Beyond ‘policy change and aid’
• Sustainable community ownership
• Finance – within the community – not ‘flowing
out’ of communities
• But
• Access to start up and working capital (poor
communities)
• Skills required
• Sustaining commitment

21. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN…..?
• Some key questions:
What are the opportunities for these approaches
in your context?
What might the challenges and barriers be?
What might help/facilitate the development of
these approaches in your context
What is it feasible/possible to achieve?
Other questions……?

22. COMMUNITY LAND TRUST VIDEOS
• http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/See-
it-and-Believe-it/CLT_Films
• http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/See-
it-and-Believe-it/rural-case-
studies/Lyvennet_Community_Trust
• http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/See-
it-and-Believe-it/rural-case-studies/high-
bickington

23. FURTHER INFORMATION
• www.tsrc.ac.uk
• www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk
• www.dtascot.org.uk
• www.locality.org.uk
• www.efc.be
• http://www.transitionnetwork.org
• Or contact
• a.j.mccabe@bham.ac.uk

24. AND FINALLY….
• Thanks to the Community Development
Journal for supporting this event.
• For access to free Community Development
Journal papers, reports, events and resources
visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/cdjc
• For access to free Third Sector Research
Centre resources visit
http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Research/KnowledgePo
rtal/tabid/840/Default.aspx