This resource offers insights and examples into how Economic Development Districts (EDDs) can incorporate wealth creation into both their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) process and content. There are also examples of how individual EDDs have accomplished this, along with links to tools that can help you get started.
Wealth creation is a community-centered, systems approach to community and economic development that applies a distinctive lens to asset-based development. Wealth creation uses a value chain approach to connect the community’s existing assets with new market opportunities to build wealth and create livelihoods that are rooted locally. The focus is on supporting local ownership and building on existing assets to strengthen and grow the local economy.
Wealth creation allows communities to focus on what they have— instead of what they lack—to generate new and sustainable economic opportunities that are rooted in local people, places and businesses.
This framework supports and builds upon existing economic development programs like the CEDS, while allowing a more refined and local approach to economic development planning that ensures that the capacity and resources generated by the plan stay in the community.
The strength of the wealth creation approach is in its inherent flexibility.
1. Recognize and build multiple forms of wealth.
2. Promote local ownership and control of assets.
3. Improve livelihoods for those currently living on the economic and social margins.
According to the US Economic Development Administration (EDA), “The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) contributes to effective economic development in America’s communities and regions through a place-based, regionally driven economic development planning process.” In recent years, Economic Development Districts (EDDs) have included wealth creation strategies in their CEDS to ensure long-term, generational benefits for communities, moving beyond traditional economic growth towards more sustainable and wide-ranging prosperity. EDDs have incorporated wealth creation into the CEDS by:
Fostering Asset-Based Economic Development by Leveraging Local Assets and Community-Owned Wealth. EDDs identify unique local resources, such as natural landscapes, cultural heritage, or industrial capabilities, on which to build opportunities. EDDs promote structures of local ownership and control of assets through cooperatives, employee-owned businesses, or land trusts that keep wealth within the community.
Encouraging Local and Regional Entrepreneurship Through Support for Small Businesses, Social Enterprises, and Anchor Institutions. EDDs can offer initiatives such as microloans, technical assistance, and incubators for local entrepreneurs. Some EDDs promote business opportunities that combine profit-making with addressing community challenges. EDDs often leverage hospitals, universities, and large regional employers to support local procurement and entrepreneurship.
Enhancing Capital Access through Innovative Financing Tools and Public Infrastructure Projects. EDDs facilitate revolving loan funds, public-private partnerships, and opportunities to attract investment while maintaining community control. Through support for investments in transportation, broadband, and utilities, EDDs can lower costs and enable economic participation.
Measuring Wealth Creation Beyond Jobs: EDDs can evaluate success through metrics such as income growth, different kinds of wealth retained locally, and economic mobility.
Wealth creation is an important lens through which to view the CEDS content as well as the CEDS process. The CEDS planning process offers a useful opportunity to engage a diverse group of stakeholders in taking stock of what’s happening on the ground locally and imagining what could be. EDA recommends a variety of steps:
There are many ways to incorporate wealth creation principles and strategies into the CEDS planning process. For example, engaging the CEDS Strategy Committee and other stakeholders can be an important first step:
EDDs engage stakeholders in different ways. For example, the Acadiana Planning Commission in Louisiana held three CEDS Strategy Meetings, including one on the successes of the region’s economic development activities; one for the SWOT Analysis, which incorporated the eight capitals; and one for Future Goals, Objectives, and Strategies of the Region.
Region Five Development Commission (R5DC), an EDD based in Staples, Minnesota, engages CEDS stakeholders based on their strengths in building specific capitals. See the CEDS Strategy Committee to the right, noting the “Economic Interest by WealthWorks capital” column. R5DC calls its version a Comprehensive Regional Economic Development Strategy or CREDS.
Find the Opportunities to Build Partnerships worksheet on the NADO Wealth Creation microsite and below. This worksheet provides an opportunity to consider current and future CEDS Committee members based on their strengths in building different regional and community capitals, as well as the value propositions, messages, and methods to use in engaging them.
Another resource to explore is NADO RF’s How to Build the CEDS Strategy Committee brief.
Each of the required sections of the CEDS provides an opportunity to incorporate wealth creation concepts and approaches. The sections are briefly summarized below:
This is a summary background of the economic conditions of the region. The question to be answered here is “What have we done?” and “What is going on in our region?”
The opportunity here is to report the conditions of the region across the eight capitals. This might include the obvious ones: jobs and employment, educational attainment, revenues, income. But it may also include conditions of natural capital, cultural capital, intellectual capital, and more.
This is an in-depth analysis of regional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (also known as a SWOT Analysis). Other, similar types of analysis are suggested by EDA, like SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Assets, and Risks) or NOISE (Needs, Opportunities, Improvement, Strengths, and Exceptions). For those who do not want to focus on negatives or who want to be more effective in engaging the broadest group of stakeholders, these may be more forward-looking and engaging methodologies to use.
The SWOT or alternative analyses are a useful opportunity to engage stakeholders, whether through a survey, interviews, focus groups, or in-person meetings and better understand the region’s needs.
Find a SWOT Analysis Template on the NADO Wealth Creation microsite.
The Strategic Direction/Action Plan section builds on findings from the SWOT analysis and incorporates/integrates elements from other relevant regional plans (e.g., land use and transportation, workforce development, emergency management, etc.). It also identifies the stakeholders responsible for implementation, timetables, and opportunities for the integrated use of local, state, and federal funds.
In the SECOG CEDS, there are three key goals in the action plan:
Each goal has multiple strategies, each of which notes key partners, capitals affected, and measures.
Even if wealth creation is not explicitly mentioned in the CEDS, there are elements of it (building wealth, keeping wealth local, building livelihoods) in many CEDS. In the Southern Colorado Economic Development District CEDS, one strategy mentions “Develop and share in the ownership of publicly owned broadband assets.”
The Central South Dakota Enhancement District CEDS references local ownership and control of assets when it lays out the strategy to “Encourage local leaders to invite youth to become involved in organizations, committees, and governing bodies in order to encourage “ownership” of a community.”
The Southern Tier 8 Regional Board in New York references in its CEDS the strategy to “Continue to build a regional local-ownership entrepreneurial community,” also referencing local ownership and control of assets.
The Blackhawk Hills Regional Council in Illinois in its CEDS suggests the opportunity to “Discuss employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and related models with proprietors.”
The Evaluation Framework is used in the CEDS to evaluate the organization’s implementation of the CEDS and the resulting impact on the regional economy.
Snowy Mountain Development Corporation, an EDD based in Lewistown, Montana, establishes in its Evaluation section: “The organization and communities increase in the eight forms of wealth including: individual, social, intellectual, natural, built, political, financial, and cultural capital.”
For R5DC, “the WealthWorks model plays an important role when evaluating the effectiveness of the [CEDS] goals and strategies, ensuring that eight asset banks, intellectual, individual, social, cultural, natural, build, political and financial, are all considered.”
EDDs that incorporate wealth creation into their CEDS often include initiatives aimed at fostering local entrepreneurship, job creation, and long-term financial sustainability. While not all EDDs explicitly label their strategies as “wealth creation,” many include elements of it through programs that empower communities and enhance their economic resilience. Here are some notable examples:
There are some common themes across Economic Development Districts taking a wealth creation approach. These include:
Encouraging and prioritizing community ownership of resources by local individuals, organizations, and businesses resources.
Building regional markets that enhance local production, connecting it to broader markets, and creating jobs.
Promoting conservation of resources. Focusing on long-term, renewable economic benefits.
Providing loans and grants to support local or regional entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Engaging people and organizations that represent the entire socio-economic spectrum.
Providing education, training, and resources to empower residents. Training residents to fill high-quality jobs in growing industries.
