Report: Multiple Business Lines in Community-Based Development Organizations

We commissioned ThirdSpace Action Lab to study why community-based development organizations engage in multiple business lines and how they successfully manage them. 

Key Findings

• Organizations pursue multiple lines because community challenges are interconnected.

• Geography affects how organizations configure multiple business lines.

• Multiple lines strengthen organizational resilience.

• Success requires specific organizational conditions.

• Organizations face significant challenges with inadequate support.
  
  

Recommendations

The executive summary includes these recommendations and more:

Strategic Imperatives for Funders and Policymakers

• Reframe infrastructure as core programming.

• Match expectations to geographic context.

• Commit to multi-year general operating support.

• Fund the true cost of integration.

• Reduce the trade-offs between mission and financial sustainability.

• Stabilize federal community development funding.

Essential Practices for Organizations

• Tell a clear story about  how your work fits together.

• Build infrastructure before expanding services.

• Be strategic about which opportunities to pursue.

• Use resident-identified barriers to design programs and services.

• Leverage service knowledge for policy advocacy.

Read the full report. This study is part of our Grounding Values in Research initiative and contributes to a broader conversation about how the community development field can build more equitable, resilient, and community-responsive systems.