Download the paper

Download the companionresearch report

STRATEGIES AND MODELS

Linking Anchor Institutions to Outcomes forFamilies, Children, and Communities

The ResearchThe Anchor Dashboard paper

and companion research report

The IndicatorsMeasuring Community Impact

Take ActionPolicy Briefs

Anchor institutions are enterprises such as universities and hospitals that are rooted in their localcommunities by mission, invested capital, or relationships to customers, employees, and vendors. As place-based entities that control vast economic, human, intellectual, and institutional resources, anchorinstitutions have the potential to bring crucial, and measurable, benefits to local children, families, andcommunities. All told, U.S. hospitals and universities combined spend over $1 trillion a year, haveendowments in excess of $500 billion, and employ 8 percent of the labor force.

Many anchor institutions regularly report on community programming and activities. Some go evenfurther and seek to pursue an anchor mission—making a commitment to consciously apply their long-term, place-based economic power, in combination with their human and intellectual resources, to betterthe long-term welfare of the communities in which they are anchored. Yet, to date, few tools exist to helpinstitutions reflect and assess broadly the long-term impact of their anchor-mission activities, andparticularly their impact on low-income communities.

This Democracy Collaborative paper and report proposes a set of indicators to begin to fill this gap.Developed through extensive research and in-depth interviews conducted with more than 75 leaders ofanchor institutions, national nonprofit organizations, federal agencies, and community organizations, TheAnchor Dashboard identifies twelve critical areas where anchor institutions can play an effective role.Additionally, it develops illustrative indicators that: 1) provide a baseline to assess conditions in thecommunity; and 2) evaluate institutional effort—e.g., dollars spent, procurement shifted, people hired,policies and accountability procedures in place.

Our hope is that The Anchor Dashboard will be a valuable mechanism to help the field more clearly focus onwhat it means for a hospital or university to pursue an anchor institution mission. By outlining bestpractices in economic development, community building, education, health, safety, and the environment,along with potential mechanisms to track progress using already available data, we intend that thispublication move the conversation from “programs” to “institutional impact”—and, especially, on howanchor institutions can conduct themselves to deliver crucial, and measurable, benefits for low-incomechildren, families, and communities.

News and updates

11/18: Presentation of theAnchor Dashboard at the

Department of Housing andUrban Development

Co-authors Ted Howard and Sarah

Report Proposes Ways toMeasure Colleges' Impact on

CommunitiesAndy Thomason covers the release ofour Anchor Dashboard report, and talksto SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher onwhy measuring university economic

A Guide for Your Local Eds andMeds to Become Better

Neighbors"Hospitals and universities hold a lot ofsway in communities. They spend morethan $1 trillion a year and employ 8percent of the country's labor force. Butsometimes the success of so-called "edsand meds" can have an undesired effect:

McKinley were joined by Sherone Ivey,Deputy Assistant Secretary for theOffice of University Partnerships, andCharles Rutheiser, Senior Associate atthe Annie E. Casey Foundation for adiscussion of The Anchor Dashboard.Watch the video now

impact is so important, for TheChronicle of Higher Education

Gentrification and subsequentdisplacement. The Anchor Dashboard [...] istrying to change that." -Bill Bradley, forNext City

Measuring the Impact ofAnchor Institutions in

Building More SustainableCommunities

"The Dashboard is an effort to developstandards by which institutions canconduct their economic developmentactivities in ways that truly benefit thecommunity, in particular low- andmoderate-income neighborhoods. " -TedHoward for the San Francisco FederalReserve's "What Works for America'sCommunities"

Assessing Impact at AnchorInstitutions

"The goal of presenting a set of commonmeasures is to inspire discussions aboutselecting and improving indicators,demonstrate that assessing anchor impactis indeed possible, and encourage moreanchor institutions to adopt an anchormission." -Steve Dubb for Shelterforce

Can Anchor Institutions DoMore for their

Neighborhoods?Ted Howard talks to WYPR about TheAnchor Dashboard and how hospitals anduniversities can help lift up low-incomecommunities. Listen now

Imagining an AnchorDashboard implementation

The Democracy Collaborative offers aspeculative take on what the publicfacing component of an AnchorDashboard implementation might looklike. View the graphic

Redefining "Rust Belt"In a four-city videoconferenceorganized by the regional FederalReserve Banks of Baltimore, Cleveland,Detroit and Philadelphia, Ted Howardexplained how the Anchor Dashboardcan play a key role as older industrialcities look for equitable and effectivestrategies for communityrevitalization.

Based on an edited version of hispresentation, this video provides asuccinct introduction to the basicprinciples behind the AnchorDashboard. View it now

Ted Howard at the MunicipalArts Society Summit

Framing the conversation around thethemes of the Anchor Dashboard,Democracy Collaborative ExecutiveDirector Ted Howard was invited tomoderate this discussion on the role ofanchor insitutions at the Municipal ArtSociety's annual gathering.

The panelists included Donald Hyslop,Head of Regeneration and CommunityPartnerships, at the Tate Modern, Dr.Anthony W. Marx, President and CEO,The New York Public Library, andJennifer Raab, President, HunterCollege, City University of New York.Watch the discussion

Download theprintable version ofthe dashboard

Locally Targetedand Inclusive

Hiring PracticesPromote Equity

InvestingInstitutionalEndowmentDollars for

CommunityDevelopment

Local SchoolPartnerships

Create HealthyCommunities

Roosevelt Institute CampusNetwork: Rethinking

CommunitiesOn January 13, 2014, the RooseveltInstitute Campus Network announcedan intiative where student leaders on21 campuses across the country willuse The Anchor Dashboard to evaluateand rank their educational institution'scommitment to positive communityimpact. Learn more

How Communities Can Makethe Most of Their Anchor

InstitutionsIn his guest column for Governing, TedHoward makes the case for anchorengagement in low-incomecommunities, targeted at measurableoutcomes and results. Read the article

Connecting CommunitiesBuilding on the "Redefining Rustbelt"

event, Ted Howard presented theAnchor Dashboard to a national

audioconference organized by theFederal Reserve System. Listen to the

presentation

Forefront

Forefront: New Ideas onEconomic Policy from the

Cleveland FedThe policy magazine of the FederalReserve Bank of Cleveland highlightsthe The Anchor Dashboard as a promisingstrategy to guide anchor-drivencommunity development in "Rustbelt"cities. Read the article

The Indicators: Measuring Community ImpactSince publication a group of universities came together to form the anchor dashboard learning cohort. Overthe following year working with the Democracy Collaborative, they developed this modified framework. Theanchor dashboard remains a living document. The institutions are currently collecting data and expect tofurther refine the instrument based on what is being learned through this data collection process.

The dashboard below is distilled from the extensive research and in-depth interviews in our report. It explains,for each sector, how an anchor institution's progress toward strategic community development goals can bemeasured through key indicators.

Take Action: Policy Briefs

This series of two-page policy briefs outlines best practices forhow anchor institutions can meet their goals in lifting up theircommunities:

Supporting LocalBusiness

Development toBuild Wealth

Real EstateDevelopment

that Builds Place

StimulatingEconomic Growth

through LocalPurchasing

Building Capacityand Developing

Leadership

EnvironmentallySustainablePractices inCommunity

Development

4

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Our publicationsOur teamEvergreen CooperativesGar AlperovitzThe Next System ProjectLearning Action Lab for Community Wealth BuildingAnchor Dashboard Learning Cohort

Strategies and models:

Anchor InstitutionsThe Cleveland ModelCommunity Development Corporations (CDCs)Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)Community Land Trusts (CLTs)Cooperatives (Co-ops)Cross-SectoralEmployee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)Green EconomyImpact InvestingIndividual Wealth BuildingIndividual Wealth PreservationLocal Food SystemsMunicipal EnterpriseNew State & Local PoliciesOutside the U.S.Program Related InvestmentsReclaiming the CommonsSocial EnterpriseState Asset Building InitiativesState and Local InvestmentsTransit Oriented DevelopmentUniversity & Community PartnershipsWorker Cooperatives