Community Development Corporations: Critical Factors That Influence Success

With federal devolution and the ascendancy of community-based development strategies to center stage, the role of community development corporations (CDCs) has gained significance. This analysis focuses on programmatic and organizational attributes of CDCs that affect community development success. Success is defined as a CDC’s contribution to the improvement of residents’ access to financial resources, physical resources, human resources, economic opportunities, and political influence. Based on previous studies and our own analysis of three case studies, we posit four key factors in CDC success: mission, organizational competency, political capital, and funding. Analysis of the experiences of the case study organizations reveal the specific ways in which these factors operate and the influence of varied contextual factors.