By the Numbers: Measuring Community Development Corporations Capacity

Community development corporations (CDCs) attempt to build capacity-that is, the ability to carry out their functions more effectively-in a variety of ways. In previous research, the authors defined five categories of capacity (resource, organizational, networking, programmatic, and political). In this article, they take on the difficult task of measuring the amorphous concept of capacity building. They look specifically at the relationship between community development partnerships, local intermediaries funded in part by the Ford Foundation to support community development, and CDCsʹ capacity-building efforts. Their survey of 219 CDCs allows them to provide a detailed estimation of capacity of CDCs in twenty cities.