| Corporation for Enterprise Development | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | CFED |
| Motto | Expanding Economic Opportunity. |
| Formation | 1979 |
| Type | Public Policy Think Tank |
| Headquarters | 1200 G Street NW |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| President | Andrea Levere |
| Website | cfed.org |
The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) is a national nonprofit based in Washington, DC dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities. CFED uses an approach grounded in community practice, public policy and private markets. CFED publishes research, partners with local practitioners to carry out demonstration projects and engages in policy advocacy work at the local, state and national levels. The organization works domestically with satellite offices in San Francisco, CA and Durham, NC.
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CFED was founded in 1979 by Bob Friedman. The organization was initially focused on economic development and microenterprise. It worked to reduce unemployment and expand opportunity by advocating for policies that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to start or expand a small business. In 1988 CFED launched the Development Report Card (DRC) for the States, a broad-based report that used multiple indicators to rate the economies of all 50 states. The DRC was widely used across the field and provided policymakers and businesses a comparative measure to assess each state's business climate.[1] The DRC was retired in 2007[2] and was replaced with the Assets & Opportunity Scorecard.[1]
CFED was one of the first champions of Individual Development Accounts (IDA) – matched savings accounts that help low-income people save for a particular goal, such as buying a home, paying for post-secondary education, or starting or expanding a small business.[3] In 1997, CFED launched the American Dream Demonstration, which was the first large-scale test of IDAs as a social and economic development tool. After seeing the success of IDAs, Congress passed the Assets for Independence Act (AFIA), providing $125 million over five years to fund IDAs.[4] The AFI Program is administered by the Office of Community Services, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.[5] There are currently hundreds of IDA programs across the United States. CFED is well-known in the field as the expert on Individual Development Accounts, as well as other asset building programs and policies.[6]
CFED is best known for its Assets Learning Conference.[7] The biennial conference brings together over a thousand leaders in the asset building field to discuss ways that assets can help create prosperity and expand economic opportunity for Americans.[8]
A national initiative geared at promoting matched savings accounts for working families by partnering them with individual donors and philanthropists, matched savings/economic independence programs, corporations, financial institutions and policymakers.[13]
The next step after the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Policy and Practice Initiative which focuses on children's development accounts for the benefit of children growing up in homes with more modest means as a way to save money for college, financial security, or wealth building.[14]
Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are matched savings accounts that help people with modest means to save toward the purchase of a lifelong asset, such as a home. CFED was an early leader in the creation and growth of IDAs as a practice, and later as a federal and state policy strategy for economic security.[15]
innovation@cfed was launched in 2008 by CFED to identify individuals at the cutting-edge of social innovations that expand economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income Americans. Each year, innovation@cfed solicits applications for individuals to submit ideas to be developed through a partnership with CFED. Innovators-in-Residence, Innovative Idea Champions and Innovative Idea Engineers are individuals selected through this process who establish a partnership with CFED, which provides financial, technical and staff supports to help bring their social innovations to scale. innovation@cfed is also founded on the notion that collaboration fosters innovation and as such hosts a number of virtual and in-person convenings aimed at bringing innovators together.[16]
I’M HOME, or Innovations in Manufactured Homes, is a CFED initiative to support programs nationwide which help families who choose manufactured homes. The goal of I'M HOME is "to ensure that these families receive the same treatment and benefits as owners of any other type of home. They coordinate a national policy coalition around manufactured housing issues and by providing technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to a network of 30+ nonprofit partners who install high-quality manufactured homes, help homeowners in manufactured housing communities secure long-term control over the land beneath their homes, advocate for public policies that help owners of manufactured homes, promote access to fair and responsibly-priced mortgage financing for manufactured housing."[17]
SETI has supported 34 organizations implementing tax preparation programs that have served over 20,000 disadvantaged self-employed businesses. SETI local partners help identify, test and refine promising practices for using the tax code as a means of fostering small business development. SETI promotes sound tax policy for start-up self‐employed filers. SETI engages with policy partners to help analyze and understand self‐employment tax policies at the national and state levels in order to help grow businesses and reduce the tax gap attributed to self-employed businesses.[18]