Part of the Solution: Leveraging Business and Markets for Low Income People

This December 2005 report offers a wealth of case studies showing specific ways in which nonprofits worked with business to generate competitive advantage for business and gains in income, assets, and wealth for low-income people. The report is based on seven years of grant-making and research conducted through the Ford Foundation Corporate Involvement Initiative, which provided over $45 million in grants and loans to help create win-win relationships between businesses and low-income communities.

The report shows that the key task that nonprofits must accomplish is to address market barriers that hold businesses back from being able to create win-win relationships with low-income communities. It also discusses five key strategies that nonprofits can pursue to remove market barriers and enable businesses to work more productively with low-income communities.