Ask a Community Vision Consultant

Real estate and finance can be tough to navigate – especially for a busy nonprofit! Maybe you have questions about how to develop an organizational budget? Or you want to learn more about negotiating a lease for your organization? We launched the Ask a Community Vision Consultant feature to answer your questions around financial management and commercial real estate for nonprofit organizations.

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Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Awards Grants to Four California Nonprofits through Community Vision Sponsorship

We are pleased to have partnered with Planting Justice, Richmond Main Street Initiative, SOMOS Mayfair, and Kultivate Labs in obtaining grants through the Federal Home Loan Bank’s Access to Housing (FHLB) and Economic Assistance for Development (AHEAD) program. Through our membership with the FHLB, Community Vision was able to sponsor the following four exciting projects:…

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Recent Client Groundbreakings & Grand Openings

We are thrilled to have partnered on so many excellent community-based projects. Join us in celebrating recent client groundbreakings and grand openings! PRC Photo Credit: PRC PRC held a grand opening on May 30th at their Integrated Service Center, Elevate SF, located at 170 9th Street in San Francisco. This opening marked the culmination of…

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Supporting Women-Owned Micro-businesses for a Healthy Rural Economy

With more than 20 years of experience in rural micro-business development, the Jefferson Economic Development Institute (JEDI) doesn’t subscribe to the dire predictions about the declining economic future of rural communities. Rather, JEDI’s experience serving micro-businesses demonstrates the opposite — that a growing number of individuals, especially women, are starting businesses to supplement their incomes or to cover basic expenses for their families.

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Reflections from the 2019 California FreshWorks Summit

By Esperanza Pallana, Community Vision’s Senior Program Officer  We believe gatherings like our 2019 FreshWorks Summit are important opportunities to hear directly from entrepreneurs in disinvested communities. It is their experiences that embody the health, economic, and social inequities of our food and financing systems. For healthy food access to be a reality for all…

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Centering Families & Transforming the Child Welfare System in Alameda County

In Alameda County, a new nonprofit organization is challenging traditional approaches to child welfare in the United States. Co-founded in 2017 by Eliza Patten and Zabrina Aleguire, East Bay Family Defenders (EBFD) provides high quality interdisciplinary representation to families navigating the child welfare system. For years, low-income families involved with Alameda County’s Juvenile Dependency Court…

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Space Planning for Arts & Culture in Downtown Oakland

By Jessica Townsend Consulting Program Analyst Email Jessica The City of Oakland has a rich and distinct cultural heritage that continues to shape civic life. In the face of rapid economic and cultural change, the history of arts and culture in Oakland gives insight into the evolution of its cultural richness and the potential for…

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Truth Telling: Why a New Name, Now?

Many of you have been keeping up with our Embodying Equity blog series. Through it, you’ve learned (or just been reminded) that since Community Vision’s founding in 1987, we’ve been committed to investing capital in and providing technical assistance to nonprofits and social enterprises that build equity in historically under-resourced neighborhoods.

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Investing in Regional Resilience & Public Infrastructure

The deterioration of public infrastructure in the United States, particularly our transportation systems, tends to receive headline news only when an environmental disaster affects a region. During an emergency, public transportation systems can provide vital services including evacuations, transporting emergency response professionals, and maintaining mobility during and after an extreme weather event.

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Embodying Equity: Exploring the Relationship Between Space & Social Structures

In urban and rural planning and development, many believe social processes and spatial form to be in direct relationship. Theorists, planners, and developers have argued that changing the spatial form in any region allows for the transformation of social form and structure as well.At Community Vision, we’ve spent the last 30 years working to transform space and social structure in tandem.

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Community Foods Market, Community Vision, NCCLF

Building Power: Aligning Capital with Justice

June 1st, 2019 marks the official opening of Community Foods Market (CFM) at 3105 San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland. This article celebrates CFM’s grand opening as a moment years in the making and only possible because of the work and dedication of many people. It also celebrates CFM as a model of what it looks like to align capital with economic and racial equity, where health, community-driven ideas, and economic empowerment are at the heart of their business model.

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