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Social Finance is a London based organisation created in 2007 with the express aim of developing an effective social investment market in the UK.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Most examples involve city governments that have opened up decisions around municipal budgets, such as overall priorities and choice of new investments, to citizen assemblies. In other cases, states, counties, schools, universities, housing authorities, and coalitions of community groups have used participatory budgeting to open up spending decisions to democratic participation.

Experts from around the world-in academic, business, and public sectors alike-have shown that strategically investing in communities is a critical element to long-term economic development and quality of life in the 21st century. The future of communities in Michigan and elsewhere depends on their abilities to attract and retain knowledge-based workers, entrepreneurs and growing industries. Central to attracting these important commodities is the concept of PLACE. To be successful communities must effectively develop and leverage their key human, natural, cultural and structural assets and nurture them through enacting effective public policy. That's one (long) answer.  Another one is, with a tip of the cap to Fred Kent at the Project for Public Spaces, "turning a place from one that you can't wait to get through into one that you never want to leave."  I like this one better.

Ready or not, decision time is upon us. Many of these highways were built to last between 40 and 50 years - they'll soon need to be either repaired or reinvented. "What's going to happen in the next 10 years when we need to make a big investment to prevent them from collapsing like the one in Minneapolis?" asks John Renne, professor of urban studies at the University of New Orleans.

To get a higher return on our public investments requires an understanding of what it takes to build great towns and neighborhoods. The following are principles of placemaking for Strong Towns.

Foundations can help improve education, public safety, the environment and other areas only if people understand the issues and are engaged. Through the Knight Community Information Challenge, dozens of foundations have invested in such initiatives as local reporting and digital literacy to help communities thrive.

Founded in 1991, Living Cities is an innovative collaborative of 22 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions. In nearly 20 years Living Cities members have collectively invested almost $1 billion, helping shape federal funding programs, redirecting public and private resources, and helping communities to build homes, stores, schools, community facilities and more. However, our members are not simply funders. They shape our work and priorities by participating on the Living Cities Board of Directors, four standing committees and three working groups. In sum, our members contribute the time of 80-plus expert program staff toward improving the lives of low-income people and the cities where they live. - See more at: http://www.livingcities.org/about/#sthash.Wkj6TLk6.dpuf

The Institute for Applied Economics at LAEDC performs objective research for a wide range of clients, detailing economic impact of development, business operations, and regulation, as well as providing intelligence about specific industry clusters, labor force, and workforce development issues.  The Institute's reports provide decision makers with critical information from which to make informed decisions.  In addition to providing on-demand research per client requirements, the Institute also provides foundational research to ensure LAEDC's combined programs for economic development are on target, ranging from our collaboration with workforce investment boards to major initiatives such as the L.A. County Strategic Plan for Economic Development.

The Hamilton Project seeks to advance America's promise of opportunity, prosperity, and growth. The Project's economic strategy reflects a judgment that long-term prosperity is best achieved by fostering economic growth and broad participation in that growth, by enhancing individual economic security, and by embracing a role for effective government in making needed public investments. We believe that today's increasingly competitive global economy requires public policy ideas commensurate with the challenges of the 21st Century. Our strategy calls for combining increased public investments in key growth-enhancing areas, a secure social safety net, and fiscal discipline. In that framework, the Project puts forward innovative proposals from leading economic thinkers-based on credible evidence and experience, not ideology or doctrine to introduce new and effective policy options into the national debate.

The Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) addresses social issues that affect business, including corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, nonprofit and social service effectiveness, globalization, community investment, and disaster assistance.

Group model building (GMB) is a participatory approach that is widely used to build the capacity of practitioners to think in a systems way. However, it is a resource-intensive approach that requires high-level buy-in and the investment of time. We discuss the evidence, including a systematic review of the literature examining the effectiveness of GMB approaches across a wide range of contexts. The results of the review are generally positive and suggest that GMB improves problem understanding, increases engagement in systems thinking, builds confidence in the use of systems ideas and develops consensus for action among diverse stakeholders.

Family Independence Initiative (FII) is a national nonprofit which leverages the power of information to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. Using hard data and compelling stories, we are sparking a movement to transform the stereotypes, beliefs, practices, and policies that undermine families' efforts to get ahead. FII believes that our country is greatly underestimating the ability of low-income families to lead their own change. FII has tracked the progress of hundreds of families over the last decade and found that the lack of upward mobility is not the result of a lack of initiative but can be traced to two other factors: 1. Lack of information, and therefore lack of investment, in the initiatives low-income families take on their own or collectively. In order to access services and programs, families have to show neediness instead of initiative(bolstering already prevalent negative stereotyping). 2. Negative stereotypes and the focus on individualism have led to government and charitable practices that discourage families from turning to one another and developing the mutuality that historically built America's middle class.

This book is about effective change. It describes methods for changing "whole systems,"that is, change based on two powerful foundation assumptions: high involvement and a systemic approach to improvement. High involvement means engaging the people in changing their own system.It is systemic because there is a conscious choice to include the people,functions,and ideas that can affect or be affected by the work.Whole system change methods help you initiate high-leverage, sustainable improvements in organizations or communities. "High-leverage" is emphasized because in any improvement effort,we want the highest possible value for the effort invested. We believe that involving people in a systematic way is a key to high leverage and that the methods in this book can provide this leverage for you.You'll need to determine the one(s) best suited to moving your organization or community to the culture you want.We wrote this book to support your efforts. 

From our homes and smartphones to the electricity running our local grocery stores, clean energy is not only possible - it's already happening. Solutions Project accelerates the transition to 100% clean energy by championing a movement that is more inclusive, more collaborative, and more celebratory. Through storytelling, grantmaking, and capacity building, we honor clean energy leaders, invest in promising solutions, and build relationships between unlikely allies. Together, we can make renewable energy a reality for everyone - 100% for 100%.

As part of this work, we draw inspiration from growing movements to claim and control 'the commons'. This refers to resources that are life's necessities. They include: Natural resources: land, water, air, and sources of energy Cultural resources: knowledge Economic resources: funds for investment in the public interest Social resources: relationships and activities through which we help each other participate and flourish

ABOUT MONEYBALL Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's, transformed baseball by ignoring the scouts and using data to build championship contending teams despite limited budgets. Moneyball for Government, a project of Results for America, encourages governments at all levels to increase their use of evidence and data when investing limited taxpayer dollars. By playing Moneyball, we can improve outcomes for young people, their families and communities.

The first award, the Innovative Planning Tool Award, highlights the best new contribution to the development of open planning tools. This year's winner for goes to Infill Score, a free open source tool for measuring a community's readiness for infill. This tool provides citizens, planners, and elected officials with a self-assessment tool and action planning tools to focus public and private sector investment and accelerate the implementation of sustainable communities. Congratulations to Infill Score.

The heart of our work is the Ecological Footprint. The Footprint measures human demand on nature, expressed as a single, easy-to-understand number that's scalable from an individual to a global level. Our Footprint data and tools empower leaders at the local and national level to make confident policy and investment decisions backed by facts.

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution. The partnership agencies incorporate six principles of livability into federal funding programs, policies, and future legislative proposals.

Public spaces are an important part of Knight Foundation's work in cities and the communities where we invest. We believe that great public spaces have the power to transform cities. They are where neighbors can meet and residents can enjoy local arts and culture, take a jog or spend time with family. They help to advance civic engagement and the attachment people feel to their cities - both necessities for creating more informed and engaged communities. Recent research by the Center for Active Design shows that public spaces can help to facilitate community connection, trust and involvement.