In December, we alongside our colleagues at RW Ventures, LLC convened 70 leaders from businesses, business collaboratives and academia from across the country in Chicago with support from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The purpose of the convening was to better understand the business opportunities in community and economic development (CED), and how companies can identify and tailor initiatives to capture these opportunities. Kate W. Isaacs of the MIT Sloan School of Management, described the event as a meeting of “unicorns:” each remarkable and exciting initiatives in themselves, but isolated heretofore and excited to meet other unicorns doing similar work.

Leading companies are experimenting and finding successful models for business-aligned development. A great deal of innovation is occurring, particularly as the alignment opportunity varies by company, industry, and place. There is great interest and potential in building upon these “unicorn” examples towards creating a robust new field of practice, driving more, and more effective, corporate engagement in community and economic development. Download the summary of the convening below for more specific details and cases across the country of business-aligned development and reach out to us to join the movement!

Download Summary