Foundation Grants
Community Vital Signs
About Us
Land Trusts Offer an Innovative Way to Help the Middle Class Afford a Home
Foundation: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
" homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many Americans."
That's the takeaway from a report from the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation, which notes that the number of nonprofit community land trusts has grown from 162 in 2006 to 302 today.
Land trusts, which are funded by foundations, government funds, financial institutions, and individual donations, often help people buy homes at below-market prices.
In exchange, homebuyers agree to restrictions that limit the home's price in the future.
The Atlanta Land Trust, for example, sold a three-bedroom home for $102,000 three years ago, and Makeisha Robey, a preschool teacher who had moved her family from rental to rental due to rising costs, says she "can see myself staying in this home for the duration of my lifetime."
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy found that $125.1 million in private funds were given to land trusts and similar programs from 2001 to 2006, and the amount grew by 80% over the next five years, in part because government funding decreased.
But getting land and developing it is expensive, making it difficult for land trusts to expand.
Data has shown that land trusts are able to keep low-cost homes from getting lost to commercial development and ensure a neighborhood's residents can afford to stay put
Read the Entire Article
Selected Foundation News
A customized collection of news from foundations from around the Web.
The People's Bank of China says it will start allowing people in China to use the country's new digital currency, the Digital Yuan, to buy goods and services starting next month, the BBC...more
When it comes to corporate social responsibility, India's government and public sector companies are at the top of the list. But when it comes to companies of all sizes, they're at the bottom,...more
The world's biggest state investors are getting into the business of making positive social and environmental impact investments. Singapore's Temasek Holdings, one of the world's largest state...more
"Our long-term vision is to see every dollar invested globally as a net positive for people and planet." So says Niklas Adalberth, the founder of Norrsken Foundation, which operates Norrsken VC,...more
When it comes to giving back to the communities in which they operate, India's companies are in a race against time to up their game. A new survey from Deloitte finds that just 28% of companies...more
Indian companies are spending more and more on philanthropic efforts. A survey of 185 companies by accounting and consulting firm Deloitte found that 25% of them spend more than $100 million a...more
Indian companies are spending more and more time thinking about how to make a positive impact on the world around them, the Economic Times reports. According to a survey of 185 companies by...more
During the Covid-19 virus, many businesses took a hard look at how they do business and realized they needed to do more to attract and retain top talent, Forbes reports. According to a report...more
"We've noticed that there are a wide variety of investment opportunities that can truly be transformative for women's and children's health and have confirmed, time and time again, that without...more
Italian crowdfunding site Ener2Crowd has just launched a new service called FidoGreen, which it says is the first "sustainable finance platform for sustainable investments," Quartz...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver Backs Social Saturday
UK will be celebrating its first national celebration of social enterprises dubbed as Social Saturday. World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who founded the Fifteen restaurant chain.