ABOUT
The Alliance for Community Development is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded in 1999, dedicated to promoting investment in low-income Bay Area communities and increasing access to capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs including but not limited to women, people of color, immigrants, and veterans.
Our Team
Our Board of Directors
Our History
The Alliance for Community Development (“Alliance”) was started in September 1999 by leaders in small business and economic development in the Bay Area who were concerned that many promising and potentially fast-growing businesses in the underserved geographic areas and industries could not access equity capital. As discussion proceeded, the Alliance developed the idea that a venture capital fund, if of sufficient scale and with supportive services, could achieve two bottom lines: market rate financial results and the creation of new jobs and other benefits for residents of low-income communities.
To achieve this goal, the Alliance partnered with the Bay Area Council to co-develop the Bay Area Equity Fund (BAEF). BAEF is part of a larger regional effort by the Bay Area Council, the Association of Bay Area governments, and others called the “Community Capital Investment Initiative” which seeks to address unemployment, poverty, blight, pollution, and economic development in 50 low to moderate income (LMI) areas in the Greater Bay Area.
By 2004, the fund closed at 75 million of investment capital and made investments in now public companies such as Pandora, Tesla, and Solar City. As a founding partner, in 2014 the Alliance received a small portion of the financial value gained from these companies’ IPOs. The interest from these funds along with corporate sponsorships and donations are used to support the Alliance’s ongoing programs to support female and minority entrepreneurs in the Bay Area.
To achieve this goal, the Alliance partnered with the Bay Area Council to co-develop the Bay Area Equity Fund (BAEF). BAEF is part of a larger regional effort by the Bay Area Council, the Association of Bay Area governments, and others called the “Community Capital Investment Initiative” which seeks to address unemployment, poverty, blight, pollution, and economic development in 50 low to moderate income (LMI) areas in the Greater Bay Area.
By 2004, the fund closed at 75 million of investment capital and made investments in now public companies such as Pandora, Tesla, and Solar City. As a founding partner, in 2014 the Alliance received a small portion of the financial value gained from these companies’ IPOs. The interest from these funds along with corporate sponsorships and donations are used to support the Alliance’s ongoing programs to support female and minority entrepreneurs in the Bay Area.
Our Approach
The Alliance has always believed that support for all stakeholders in our entrepreneurship ecosystem was critical to its mission. When we co-sponsored the first Bay Area Equity Fund, we helped bring together an alliance of not-for-profits, foundations, banks, investors, and pension fund holders to establish a triple bottom line fund supporting local Bay Area companies.
Then for eight years, under the leadership of then Executive Director Darlene Crane we offered a local program in Oakland called Propel (formerly known as 'Created in Oakland') to build capacity in local community members, training local entrepreneurs who identified as women, people of color and veterans to bring their vision to fruition.
In 2017, after nearly two decades of equity-based community-building here in the Bay Area, we launched the Bay Area Entrepreneurship Alliance (BAE Alliance), a membership organization rooted in what we identified as our shared community VALUES: Viability, Accessibility, Local leadership, Unity, Equity, and Sustainability. The BAE Alliance had over 250 members comprised of entrepreneurs, business support providers and financial support providers who sought to connect, strategize and forge progress towards a VALUES-based economy.
Then for eight years, under the leadership of then Executive Director Darlene Crane we offered a local program in Oakland called Propel (formerly known as 'Created in Oakland') to build capacity in local community members, training local entrepreneurs who identified as women, people of color and veterans to bring their vision to fruition.
In 2017, after nearly two decades of equity-based community-building here in the Bay Area, we launched the Bay Area Entrepreneurship Alliance (BAE Alliance), a membership organization rooted in what we identified as our shared community VALUES: Viability, Accessibility, Local leadership, Unity, Equity, and Sustainability. The BAE Alliance had over 250 members comprised of entrepreneurs, business support providers and financial support providers who sought to connect, strategize and forge progress towards a VALUES-based economy.
Our Goals + Strategies
Goal 1. Build Trust & Values Alignment: the Alliance is building a VALUES-based economy, bringing more consciousness to our entrepreneurship ecosystem. We catalyze culture change so that our economy is more trusting, and more VALUES-aligned, and helpful in creating a more financially empowered, socially responsible, and environmentally beneficial region.
- Strategy: VALUES System -- The VALUES System defines each of our shared community values and breaks them into action areas. The Alliance offers assessments on each value to entities (for profit businesses and not-for-profit organizations), helps entities create VALUES Action Plans and roadmaps, and awards badges to VALUES Verified entities. This system gives recognition to those entities who are actively forging progress and strengthens those on the journey to VALUES verification.
- Strategy: Feature Entrepreneurs -- It is vital that we highlight and support great leadership in the VALUES-based entrepreneurship space when we see it. That is why we feature local entrepreneurs within all that we do, including featuring local artists each year at our conferences, featuring local investors at our quarterly membership meetings, and featuring local food entrepreneurs at every possible opportunity, as it must be experienced to be fully appreciated.
Goal 2. Increase Equity & Efficiency For Stakeholders: help local underrepresented entrepreneurs access the right business and financial support at the right time. By coordinating and acting as air traffic control for our rich Bay Area ecosystem of technical assistance, mentorship, legal aid, marketing expertise, investment, lending, etc. we help everyone manage the abundance and increase equity and access for all.
- Strategy: Accessible Membership -- Our membership body was formed to build cohesion and community within our Bay Area entrepreneurship ecosystem. Anyone who identifies as an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurship support provider may join the BAE Alliance. In order to join, members commit (to shared VALUES) and contribute ($50/year to $1,000/year on a sliding scale basis, based on annual revenue with in-kind payment available).
- Strategy: Convening -- To facilitate culture change, increasing collaboration and coordination in the robust Bay Area entrepreneurship ecosystem, we hold quarterly membership meetings where stakeholders co-create strategy for collective implementation, speed network, and share announcements and an annual Bay Area Capital Connections (BACC) conference. At our BACC XI conference in 2019, we launched the VALUES System, focused in on the "S" in VALUES by making the business case for bold Sustainability, and celebrated our 20-year anniversary!
Goal 3. Understand What Works and What Doesn't: track data and follow entrepreneurs on their journey with a focus on accelerating entrepreneur progress over time.
- Strategy: Navigation -- We offer free 45 minute navigation sessions to any entrepreneur, hustler, founder, visionary, or person with an idea who requests one. In a navigation session, the entrepreneur sits down with a trained Bay Area Entrepreneurship Navigator for an interview (offered in English and Spanish). Based on the entrepreneur's answers, the Navigator uses our open resource database to match the entrepreneur to 'best fit referrals' and offers personal introductions to business and financial support providers.
- Strategy: Anonymous Feedback -- Critical to this navigation process is our anonymous feedback process which is incorporated into navigation sessions and check-ins. Building upon the trust we earn from the entrepreneurs we work with, we ask entrepreneurs to tell us about their experiences with business and financial support providers. We relay that feedback in the form of short anonymous narratives to those providers.
- Strategy: Shared Tools -- Our three toolboxes (for entrepreneurs, for people/organizations who provide business support, and for people/organizations who provide financial support) are designed to increase efficient navigation, provide for accessible data flow, and increase VALUES-alignment.