Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco

Community Development Innovation Review

The Community Development Innovation Review focuses on bridging the gap between theory and practice, from as many viewpoints as possible. The goal of this journal is to promote cross-sector dialogue around a range of emerging issues and related investments that advance economic resilience and mobility for low- and moderate-income communities.

  • Advancing Social Impact Investments through Measurement Conference: Summary and Themes

    David Erickson, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

    Both the community development and impact investing fields are working diligently to find ways to bridge their divides and in many ways they are closer together now than ever. But if we are to make real progress in combining forces, focusing in particular on how we measure social and environmental outcomes holds promise in resolving […]

  • Metrics Matter: A Human Development Approach to Measuring Social Impact

    Sarah Burd-Sharps, Patrick Guyer, and Kristen Lewis, American Human Development Project

    Measuring social impact appears daunting. Many CRA-obligated institutions are trying to comply with regulations that they provide banking services (beyond deposit) to low-and middle-income communities.

  • Including the Beneficiary Voice: The Success Measures Experience

    Margaret Grieve and Deborah Visser, NeighborWorks America

    It is possible to do systematic, methodologically sound impact measurement that more fully demonstrates what investors want to know: How are people’s lives improving? How are communities changing?

  • What Would Google Do? Designing Appropriate Social Impact Measurement Systems

    Lester M. Salamon, Johns Hopkins University

    Enormous progress is being made in the design of metrics to assess the consequences of social interventions. But four considerations could still usefully be given greater salience in the design of social impact measurement systems.

  • "Impact Investing": Theory, Meet Practice

    Mark Pinsky, Opportunity Finance Network

    The loud buzz of excitement about Impact Investing is cause for concern, but not only because the enthusiasm is ahead of the practice.

  • Solidifying the Business Case for CDFI Nonfinancial Performance Measurement

    Ben Thornley, Pacific Community Ventures

    Measuring nonfinancial returns is a cost of doing business for community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Like any other expense, the tracking and reporting of impact must be justified by the contribution it makes to CDFI operational and strategic priorities.

  • Opportunity Data: The Other Half of the Information Equation

    Laura Sparks, Citi Community Development and Citi Foundation

    The quality of an “impact investment” should be evaluated by data that both frames the need and tells us what happened in response to an investment. Impact data only tells us whether we’ve been successful. Opportunity data is required to inform whether, where, why and how to best target investment in the first place.

  • The Crisis’ Silver Lining: Impact Accounting Penetrates the Mainstream

    Sara Olsen, SVT Group

    The banking crisis has laid bare something that is often hard to quantify: the social value from homeownership that accrues to people and their communities.

  • Global Agricultural Value Chains: Sustainable Growth as a Means for Sustainable Development

    Patricia Lee Devaney, Root Capital

    Agricultural businesses in developing countries offer an opportunity for market-based economic development that creates benefits throughout global value chains.

  • International Housing Partnership Exchange

    Thomas A. Bledsoe and Paul Weech, Housing Partnership Network

    The U.S. nonprofit leaders and the European nonprofit leaders alike discovered that nonprofit housing organizations, no matter how different the policy environment, all share the mission of addressing the needs of homeless families and low-income workers.