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 approach to development that creates multiple forms of wealth that are owned and controlled locally. Yellow Wood provides the conceptual “glue” that holds the initiative together. We work directly with grantees on the ground in three regions of the United States – Central Appalachia, the South, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley – providing coaching, technical assistance, and measurement training. We also coordinate with grantees providing various forms of support to the initiative including research on rural/urban connections and policy, clinics (at MIT and Wake Forest University), knowledge transfer tools, corporate engagement, impact investing, value chain financing, and the role of community foundations, economic development organizations, and regional funders. In addition, we work with national groups such as the National Cooperative Business Association to explore applications of wealth creation value chains and the wealth creation framework to their work.
Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development
