Yellow Wood has been the thought leader in developing an alternative approach to economic development based on inclusive wealth creation that provides a bridge between community and economic development with an emphasis on sustainable livelihoods. Through this approach, we expand the traditional definition of wealth to include intellectual, social, individual, natural, built, political and financial wealth. The wealth creation approach is intentionally inclusive of low-wealth people and areas and seeks to increase investment in the assets they own and control by connecting them to larger economic forces and regions. This approach sets a high standard; it challenges us all to figure out how to create multiple forms of wealth at the same time without undermining any one to create another.
Tools developed through this approach, such as the wealth matrix and value chains, can be used to plan and assess development activity to improve practice, impacts and sustainability and provide a framework for powerful market-based economic development that benefits communities of place. You can find reports, presentations, and other materials related to wealth creation in our resource library.
Yellow Wood’s wealth creation services include keynote addresses; virtual and on-site training in the wealth creation approach; coaching support for adopters (including grantees); sector-based research; policy analysis; economic and fiscal impact analysis and outcome measurement.
Yellow Wood is a founding member of the WealthWorks Network of trained practitioners with whom we work collaboratively to meet client needs and provide training to value chain managers and WealthWorks coaches. If you are interested in learning more about training in WealthWorks, visit our WealthWorks page.
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…
Shanna Ratner worked with Barbara Wyckoff of Dynamica Consulting to develop a handbook for ActionAid. This work built off of the framework developed in the Kathmandu workshop on Gender Sensitive Access to Market and Value Chains. Topics addressed…
Participants in the fourth WealthWorks training, which began in April 2015 and runs through February 2016, come from organizations and states across the country, including National Joint Powers Alliance (MN), Southern Colorado Economic Development…
Yellow Wood Associates is working with Cornell University to facilitate working sessions with their research and extension advisory teams to systemically apply the WealthWorks theory of how wealth is created and retained in rural areas to the rural-urban…
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…
Participants in the third WealthWorks training, which began in October 2014 and runs through August 2015, come from organizations and states across the country, including Agricultural Utilization Research Institute…
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…
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…
Melissa Levy co-authored a report, along with Barbara Wyckoff of Dynamica Consulting, for the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs. The report, titled “Connecting Community Assets with Market Demand for Lasting Livelihoods: Meeting New Challenges…
Yellow Wood worked with the Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center to plan and facilitate a learning journey around arts tourism. Representatives from the Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center traveled to Western North Carolina for an itinerary…
Melissa Levy presented two “You Get What You Measure®” workshop sessions at the 25th Annual Rural Community and Economic Development Conference, as part of a program of workshops on community and economic development techniques. The conference was…
Shanna Ratner presented on “Creating and Retaining Wealth: Connecting Assets with Market Demand for Lasting Livelihoods” at the 21st Annual Conference on the Adirondacks. Her presentation was titled…
Profit Squared sought Yellow Wood’s assistance in developing a case study of a goat meat value chain project supported by Heifer International in Nepal, for use in training Heifer International staff on a wealth creation approach to development. Yellow…
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…
Yellow Wood Associates is working with the Natural Capital Investment Fund and partners to develop outcome measures for the Rural Jobs Accelerator that capture effects on the seven forms of wealth as well as on jobs and income. We will work with NCIF…
Yellow Wood Associates worked with the Verde River Valley Nature Organization (VRVNO), a Walton Family Foundation grantee. Yellow Wood provided VRVNO with coaching and analysis to review their birding value chain, identify metrics/measurement that…
Shanna Ratner and Barbara Wyckoff were invited by ActionAid to co-facilitate a five day workshop in Nepal. The participants included partners and ActionAid staff from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Senegal together with two women community…
In the second phase of their work with the Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission / Black Belt Treasures, Yellow Wood is working with Black Belt Treasures to strengthen their value chain through expanded connections to the greater arts, culture and…
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…
At the invitation of Mann Librarian Outreach and Engagement Specialist Jeff Piestrak, Shanna Ratner made two presentations followed by participatory engagement, one at Mann Library and one at the Tompkins County Library, respectively entitled: A Wealth…
The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship funded Yellow Wood Associates to work with mini-grantees of the National Association of Development Organizations. Melissa has been working with a NADO mini-grantee, the Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission,…
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:…
Yellow Wood collaborated with the Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group to develop a knowledge transfer platform for development practitioners who want to use the wealth creation approach developed through the Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation…
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…
Shanna Ratner gave a plenary presentation on “Your Role in Healthy Food Systems” at the Growing Health 2012 conference, highlighting how healthy food systems contribute to multiple forms of wealth in the community, and workshopping ways in which members…
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…
Yellow Wood was invited to collaborate with the National Cooperative Business Association to develop the introductory workshop and framework for subsequent workshops in a conference track for community economic development practitioners. The initial…
Yellow Wood worked with the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) to conduct a pilot study on the unique contribution cooperatives make to the creation and retention of wealth in the communities and regions in which they operate. We worked…
Melissa Levy spoke about Wealth Creation in Rural Communities during a session titled "Working Lunch: Rural Wealth Creation."
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…
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Melissa Levy presented an interactive demonstration of tools designed to help practitioners…
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 a pre-conference session on Wealth Creation in Rural Communities at the Appalachia Funders Network's Second Annual Gathering in Charleston, West Virginia.
Shanna Ratner participated in an ad hoc think tank convened by Appalachian Sustainable Development on the role of social enterprises in building and strengthening local food value chains. 25 representatives of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and…
Shanna Ratner was invited to serve as one of three external advisors to Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) to help refine and finalize 5Capitals - A toolkit to improve impacts of pro-poor value chain development. The…
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…
Yellow Wood Associates worked with One Voice and NAACP Mississippi to identify best practices for developing a food systems value chain with a focus on four models (Institutional Sales through the Farm to School model; Targeted Distribution of Produce…
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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…
In October 2011, Shanna Ratner made a presentation and delivered a workshop on the Wealth Creation approach at the 2011 National Cooperative Business Association Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
Shanna Ratner, Principal, presented on "Local Wealth Creation, Diversification and Retention." This presentation provided an overview of the wealth creation approach to rural development and the Ford Foundation's…
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…
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