Shanna Ratner presented the closing keynote at the 2015 Regards to Rural Conference in Bend, Oregon. Her presentation shared perspectives on what it looks like to do economic development differently, drawing on her experience with the WealthWorks framework…
Shanna Ratner was the featured presenter at the Regards to Rural 2015 Conference Pre-Session, “WealthWorks Northwest,” consisting of three workshops introducing WealthWorks. The first workshop, “WealthWorks Northwest! Building Rural Wealth,” focused…
Participants in the April 2015 Becoming a Measurement Guide Training joined us from the 1772 Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Yellow Wood Associates. Yellow Wood has been offering professionals with facilitation skills…
Opportunity International was interested in developing an agricultural model for sharing economic benefits and applying this model to a plant operated by Opportunity International in Nicaragua. The CODESPA Foundation was selected to complete this…
Yellow Wood Associates is working with place-based grantees of the Walton Family Foundation in the Lower Mississippi River Region. This work is focused around nature-based tourism. Coaching work includes calls with grantees and group calls to support…
Yellow Wood Associates is the managing grantee and thought leader for Wealth Creation in Rural Communities - Building Sustainable Livelihoods (now WealthWorks), an initiative of the Ford Foundation that seeks to improve rural livelihoods with a systems…
The Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation is focused on strengthening the food system of the Hudson Valley Region through four primary areas of focus: 1) The Hudson Valley Farm Hub; 2) A Food Hub Portfolio; 3) Education; and 4) A financing…
Continuing their work with the Local Economies Project (LEP) of the New World Foundation, Yellow Wood designed and facilitated a full-day, on-site workshop to review the findings from the first workshop, align current and planned activities in relation…
Yellow Wood worked with the Land Trust Alliance Northeast Region and the 1772 Foundation to plan and facilitate a meeting of farmland preservation grantees. The Land Trust Alliance Northeast Region has a collaborative relationship with the 1772 Foundation…
Shanna Ratner was a panelist on the panel "Innovative Strategies that Support Rural Communities." This panel featured organizations that build local value chains in sectors such as food and agriculture, green affordable housing, energy efficiency,…
Participants in the second WealthWorks training, which began in April 2014 and runs through February 2015, come from organizations and states across the country, including Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group…
The WealthWorks Training provides coaches and coordinators from nonprofit, for profit, and government agencies with an introduction to the Wealth Works approach and framework and a guided six to nine month Wealth Works…
Melissa Levy presented on measuring multiple forms of wealth on June 2013 as part of the 2013 Community Economic Development Webinar Series. Melissa's presentation was part of a webinar titled "Measuring the Success of Your Community Economic Development…
Melissa Levy presented “Measuring Impact Using a WealthWorks Approach” on Thursday, October 17th, 2013, at the Community Indicators Consortium Impact Summit. Her presentation was made as part of a session titled “Building Data, Gauging…
Melissa Levy presented, “Wealth Creation in Rural Communities: Measuring Impact to Build Locally Controlled Wealth” at the Vermont Nonprofit Conference in Fairlee, Vermont in March 2013. The Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation in Rural Communities initiative…
Beginning in fall 2011, Yellow Wood Associates has worked with four Walton Family Foundation grantees along the Lower Mississippi River around nature based tourism. Focus areas for this group have included paddling tourism, non-consumptive wildlife…
Melissa Levy, Senior Associate at Yellow Wood Associates, co-presented a session with Euneika Rogers-Sipp, Chief Regenerative Officer of Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families. The session was titled "Building Rural Wealth Based on…
Shanna Ratner was a panelist for two sessions at this conference: "Place-based vs. Conventional Economic Development" and "Measuring Real Time Plan & Project Impacts." The conference was sponsored by the New England Federal Partnership for Sustainable…
Shanna Ratner participated on the panel "Quality of Life: How Can Co-ops Make a Difference?" along with representatives from NRECA, CoBank, and the US Department of Agriculture. Changing demographics and an economy in transition present challenges…
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Liz Lerman invited Shanna Ratner to join them as a special guest for a conversation about wealth and poverty in America at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. The conversation took place as part of "Blood, Muscle, Bone:…
Melissa Levy presented an overview of the Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation in Rural Communities initiative, which uses a systems approach to wealth creation, linking together the whole system of assets, producers and consumers in ways that benefit…
Melissa Levy co-presented a workshop session titled "Visioning and Beyond: Developing Plans and Measuring Implementation" with Peggy Reichert of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The workshop walked participants through the process of connecting…
Yellow Wood provided coaching in wealth creation value chain development and conducting demand-related research for four nature-based tourism pilot projects in the Lower Mississippi Delta. We also provided coaching services for a team working with…
Yellow Wood worked with twelve Walton Family Foundation grantees in the Verde Valley area of Arizona. The intent of this work was to introduce the wealth creation approach as a way to strengthen the individual projects and begin thinking about the…
ActionAid is an international organization, working with over 15 million people in 45 countries for a world free from poverty and injustice. After hearing about the wealth creation approach, ActionAid approached the Ford Foundation to learn more. In…
Melissa Levy facilitated "Social Equity in Rural Communities: Setting Goals and Tracking Progress" with Wayne Fawbush of the Ford Foundation and Noah Dorius of HUD Region 1.
Melissa Levy presented an interactive demonstration of tools designed to help practitioners identify and measure the impacts of project and policy actions on different forms of community wealth. Participants worked through two exercises to analyze…
Shanna Ratner presented on the wealth creation approach as a guest lecturer for this five-day intensive summer program offered by the UVM Institute for Global Sustainability, taught by Professor Rhonda Phillips of Arizona State University.
Yellow Wood presented two workshops to the Walton Family Foundation Nature-Based Tourism Group of grantees along the lower Mississippi River Delta. The first workshop was around goals, value chains and wealth creation. Participants articulated goals…
Shanna Ratner participated as a speaker/panelist in a call discussing how communities can help to create business opportunities and mentor the entrepreneurs who can help them grow.
[this project is set to unpublished as it is a duplicate record]
Shanna Ratner presented on the wealth creation approach as a guest lecturer for this five-day intensive summer program offered by the UVM Institute for Global Sustainability,…
Shanna Ratner presented two webinars to interested cooperatives on the Wealth Creation approach in September 2011.
Melissa Levy gave an overview of the Wealth Creation in Rural Communities approach and discussed how higher education institutions have supported various aspects of local projects. Ms. Levy's presentation was part of a webinar that explored innovative…
Yellow Wood was the local evaluator for Workforce Central, an initiative of the Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County (now Incourage Community Foundation) and its strategic partners funded by the National Workforce Solutions Fund (NWSF).…
Yellow Wood worked with the Vermont Community Foundation and the United Way of Addison County to use You Get What You Measure® with each organization’s grantees, a diverse group of organizations operating in Addison County, Vermont, to learn more about…
This You Get What You Measure® workshop was designed for community stakeholders to assist them in coming together to recognize their own and each other’s roles in moving toward their goal, “Lives are enriched in our community as retiring boomers reengage…
Shanna Ratner and Rob Petrini of Yellow Wood Associates worked with a group of regional participants from the Central Minnesota Cultural Planning Steering Committee applying the You Get What You Measure® process to a Cultural Plan previously worked…
Within this session Yellow Wood Associates worked with a diverse group of eleven nonprofit organizations within Central Minnesota. Each group was asked to identify a specific goal related to their organization at which time we facilitated them through…
The You Get What You Measure® workshop presented on May 11, 2009 for Workforce Central of the Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County, Wisconsin was well attended by participants ranging from staff, committee members, funder representatives…
Shanna Ratner and Rob Petrini presented a You Get What You Measure workshop for the Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County, WI on March 5, 2009. This half day session was the first of two, the second presented on May 12, 2009. The first…
The You Get What You Measure® workshop presented by Shanna Ratner, Melissa Levy, and Rob Petrini on April 28 and 29th, 2009 for the Spartanburg, South Carolina Community organized through the Spartanburg County Foundation, was a two-day You Get What…
In this workshop Yellow Wood worked with the West Central Initiative Management Team and applied the You Get What You Measure® process to the Business and Employment portion of their strategic plan. During this process they revealed the key leverage…
West Central Initiative, a regional economic development group in Minnesota, hired Yellow Wood Associates to bring our Green Community Technologies® tools and perspective to bear on water resource issues in small Minnesota communities. The cities of…
The West Central Initiative commissioned an infrastructure pilot project in three communities in west central Minnesota. The City of Battle Lake, as a community with a relatively new centralized infrastructure facing pressure from growth, was chosen…
The West Central Initiative commissioned an infrastructure pilot project in three communities in west central Minnesota. The City of Brandon, as a community with agricultural land being converted to housing, was chosen to be part of the pilot project.…
The West Central Initiative commissioned an infrastructure pilot project in three communities in west central Minnesota. The City of Ottertail, as a community facing development pressure and pressing water system issues, was chosen to be part of the…
The Director and volunteer committee who manage the Western Heritage Historic Byway in Idaho used You Get What You Measure® to develop a strategic plan for their byway. They identified goals, key leverage indicators, measures and actions that will…
Yellow Wood assisted Wayne Fawbush of the Ford Foundation in developing an innovative approach to rural development based on an application of triple bottom line principles to create and maintain community wealth. Wealth was defined by categories of…
Yellow Wood Associates designed and conducted a day-long Community Forestry Workshop in Craftsbury, Vermont. The workshop was designed both for communities that own and manage town forest land and for communities that are exploring the possibility…
Yellow Wood provided assistance to the manager of RUPRI's Community Clustering Initiative in considering how to evaluate progress toward the Initiative's goals related to strengthening local governance. This innovative project uses computer communications…
Shanna Ratner provided coaching and mentoring for 2005 Measurement Guide Samin Dadelahi as she conducted her first solo session of You Get What You Measure® at the Wyoming Community Foundation. The “Wyoming Community Foundation Evaluation and Planning…
Members of the November 2004 Becoming a Measurement Guide class included Monica Stone, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Samin Dadelahi, Wyoming Community Foundation. Since 2002, Yellow Wood has been offering professionals with facilitation…
Facilitated two-day application of You Get What You Measure® with staff and community leaders focusing on identifying key leverage points and measures of progress toward poverty reduction goals identified in the community plan.
Yellow Wood Associates provided an introduction to strategy development using You Get What You Measure® to a multi-lingual group of residents, immigrants, and refugees in Central South King County, Washington on behalf of the Northwest Area Foundation.…
Facilitated one-day application of You Get What You Measure® for the Community Foundation of Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Northeast Iowa focusing on clarifying the definition of “assets” using indicator analysis in a systems context for self-organizing…
Members of the August 2002 Becoming a Measurement Guide class included LaDonna Coy, Southwest CAPT, Oklahoma; Kerstin Gorham, Northwest Area Foundation, Minnesota; and Karen Affeld, Rural Action, Ohio. Since 2002, Yellow Wood has been offering professionals…
Shanna Ratner of Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. was invited by the Northwest Area Foundation of St. Paul, Minnesota to work with grantees receiving support under its Regional Center Initiative. Grantees received significant financial support to prepare…
Yellow Wood worked with the Conservation Law Foundation to help explain the importance of economic and fiscal impact assessment in relation to a proposed sewer expansion. Work included substantial attention to the importance of developing standards…
Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation on the integration of social capital into their grant-making process. The work involved facilitating the Social Capital Multiplier Group, researching social capital applications…
Worked on behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation to document and analyze the economic and fiscal impacts of the proposed Stowe Ski Area Master Plan. The analysis emphasized the extent of public investment versus public benefit in electric utilities,…
Yellow Wood provided written and oral testimony for the foundation in the Act 250 review of the Town of Milton, Vermont in their proposal to expand sewer service along Route 7. The purpose of the evaluation was to review the adequacy and/or deficiencies…
Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. conducted training for the staff and grant recipients of the Maine Community Foundation's Rural Initiative. Training focused on defining poverty and economic security and learning how to measure progress toward the goals…
Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. was invited by the Aspen Institute to participate in a review of the East Tennessee Foundation’s rural communities initiative. Offered feedback and advice on delivering technical assistance to community groups.
Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. provided training to staff and grant recipients of the New Mexico Community Foundation to assist in integrating community capacity building into the foundation, rural livelihood, and strengthening family grantee initiatives.…
