Community Development Corporations: Critical Factors That Influence Success

ABSTRACT: With federal devolution and the ascendancy of community-based development strat-egies to center stage, the role of community development corporations (CDCs) has gained signif-icance. This analysis focuses on programmatic and organizational attributes of CDCs that affect community development success. Success is defined as a CDC’s contribution to the improvement of residents ’ access to financial resources, physical resources, human resources, economic opportu-nities, and political influence. Based on previous studies and our own analysis of three case studies, we posit four key factors in CDC success: mission, organizational competency, political capital, and funding. Analysis of the experiences of the case study organizations reveal the specific ways in which these factors operate and the influence of varied contextual factors. The revitalization of distressed communities has served as a focal point for national and local ini-tiatives for more than four decades. Each policy and program effort has generated a host of experi-ences and commentary. What is unique about recent discourse is the tacit acceptance of federal devolution and the ascendancy of local community-based strategies to center stage. In this new pol-icy context, community-based organizations in general, and community development corporations (CDCs) specifically, are expected to play more active and central roles in planning and implementin