COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Community based development is not well known and less understood. It is a movement borne of the poverty programs of the sixties. Today, after three decades, it is an industry of considerable strength that is quietly transforming lives and communities across America. It is an uniquely American force in the best traditions of the social and economic institutions.

The achievements of Community Development Corporations (CDC’s) are a story of remarkable success in the face of considerable uncertainty and challenge. The industry has grown 64% to an estimated 3,600 organizations in the last four years. The productivity of the industry over the last 30 years history include 71 million square feet of commercial and industrial space developed, 1.9 billion in loans outstanding to 59,000 small and micro-business, 247,000 private sector jobs created and 550,000 units of affordable housing.

The management of nonprofit organizations is steadily becoming more professional. Information is shared through a growing numbers of associations and periodicals enabling sector leaders to adapt these policies and procedures to fulfill the various missions of their organizations.

Nonprofit organizations, like their corporate counter parts, are affected by global systems of economics and production. Organizations from all sectors of our economy are trying to establish quality as their “organizational culture”. Nonprofits, like business and government, must adopt the principles and best practices of quality and continuous improvement, if they are to meet growing public services needs in the face of scarce resources.

One of the major challenges to effective development and implementation of total quality is getting the organization’s leaders to recognize the crucial role that leadership plays. Leadership demands personal involvement and knowledge of quality principles and best practices. Leaders of nonprofit organization should treat the implementation of quality as an important new tool when taking on important challenges facing their organization. Every element of our society is being forced to move in this new direction.

If nonprofit organizations expect to succeed, quality must become its basic culture. s as most U.S. organizations, combined with effective leadership and operational policies, C.D.C’s will have a greater chance of fulfilling their mission.
 

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