National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3)

Historically, Americans have understood investment opportunities as purchasing stocks and bonds issued by publicly traded companies on a stock market, which effectively drains capital from communities. Taking a closer look at our communities and the places where we live and work, we see that the real drivers of our prosperity are locally owned businesses. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that small local businesses, which constitute over half our economy, are the most important creators of local income, wealth, and jobs — not to mention acting as a stabilizing force for neighborhoods. However, laws governing investment, a lack of investor and entrepreneur education, cultural barriers, and misguided conventions have made it difficult for the vast number of Americans to even consider investing in the local half of the economy. We're working to change that! NC3 is a multi-sector network of community champions working together to accelerate the shift to a sustainable, inclusive, democratic economy. Our members are a diverse group of community leaders, entrepreneurs, lawyers, financial advisors, investors, consultants, economic development professionals, concerned citizens, philanthropists, educators, and others collaborating to usher in an era of greater local ownership and control - and more widespread prosperity. Together, we’re incubating innovative strategies that activate diverse community stakeholders; we're sharing insights, expertise, information, and resources; and we're creating opportunities for community capital champions to network, collaborate, learn, and share - and advance the community capital field. We hope you'll join us!