.In a more sustainable economy, everyone would have a vast array of local choices for investing, saving, and borrowing money. We’re looking beyond Wall Street and giant corporate financial service providers and asking: How can community members pool their financial resources to support the thriving of our local economies?

We develop resources, incubate projects, and advocate for policies to give communities greater control of and access to capital and financial services. We navigate legal and practical questions around local investing, community-sourced capital raising, lending circles, complementary currencies, mission investing, and more. To finance local enterprises, land, and farms, we help communities tap into pools of capital, such as community capital (savings and investments of ordinary people), retirement savings, foundation endowments, and more. 

Click below to learn more about our projects and resources:

Transfer Retirement Savings Out of Wall Street

Create More Investment Funds, Permanent Cooperatives, and other Financing Intermediaries

Increase the Use of Direct Public Offerings (DPOs)

Adopt State Income Tax Incentives for Local Investments

Support Economies Based on Barter, Gifts, Time Banks, and Local Currencies

Resource Libraries

Check out our two legal resource libraries:

1. CommunityEnterpriseLaw.org with information financing, local investing, business entities, employment, and land and housing. 
2. CommunityCurrenciesLaw.org with information on barter, time banks, and local currencies.

Resource Guides: 

• Grassroots Financing Guide for California Farmers
• Capital Raising for Worker Cooperatives: Using the AB 816 Community Investor Provision

Videos: 

• Securities Law Basics video, featuring squirrel cartoons!
• Legal Basics for Time Banks and Barter Exchanges, featuring soup cartoons!
• Legal Basics for Complementary Currencies, Part 1
• Legal Basics for Complementary Currencies, Part 2

This work is funded, in part, by a grant from the Clarence E. Heller Foundation.