Over the past ten years, the National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED) has conducted a series of four national census surveys to record the trends and achievements of community-based development organizations. This report contains NCCEDs data findings from 1994 to the end of 1997.

Commonly known as CDCs (community development corporations), these non-profit organizations---of which approximately 3,600 were projected in 1997--focus on win-win outcomes benefiting business and community; are multi-disciplined; are based on economic practices; are entrepreneurial and indigenous. They derive their leadership and governance from residents and other stakeholders in the communities they serve and can uniquely assess local needs and tap into local resources.

The convergence of public policy shifts and the forces of an economy in a period of unprecedented growth has created a set of conditions in which CDCs are positioned to be agents of economic change and instruments of public policy. As this census report illustrates, CDCs have established a track record as effective instruments in areas such as:

• commercial and industrial real estate development;
• small and micro-business lending;
• business partners;
• affordable housing production;
• increasing homeownership;
• workforce development;
• neighborhood revitalization; and
• community building.

Some key findings:

• The 1998 census counted 1,400 more CDCs than in the 1995 report.
• 90% of all CDCs received at least $50,000 from federal programs over the four-year period of 1994 through 1997.
• The median age of a CDC is 15 years and the median staff size is six.
• 82% of CDCs have developed or financed housing units.
• CDCs manage about 59% of the rental units they produce.
• 40% of the commercial and industrial space developed by CDCs has been developed in the past four years.
• The percentage of CDCs completing commercial/industrial space has increased from 18% in 1995 to 31% in the 1998 census.