About Wealth Our Way
There is a growing national movement towards intentional local ownership. Communities are leveraging shared ownership models to launch businesses and to raise capital to acquire and control key real estate assets. This form of community capital pooling serves as an alternative funding mechanism to traditional lending and investments.
Wealth Our Way (W.O.W.) is a collaborative initiative designed to support communities in launching wealth-building models, based on their terms, that advance their quality of life, build wealth and shift power dynamics in their neighborhoods.
As part of the W.O.W. initiative, capital grants are available up to $500,000 to support commercial shared ownership model. Learn more!
Our W.O.W. Approach
Producing and maintaining resources and tools to support the design and implementation of commercial shared ownership models by community groups and organizations
Assisting local organizations in assembling a team of subject matter experts and securing resources to create models appropriate for their communities
Guiding implementation efforts, including acquisition of properties, fundraising, and back-office support
Providing capital grants and connecting projects to funders to advance the real estate component of their model
Model Types
The Desk supports the following shared ownership models:
Community Investment Vehicles
A CIV is a legal investment mechanism that provides collective community investment in neighborhood assets based on shared development goal(s). In its perfect form, it is majority-controlled, majority-owned and designed by residents or local members.
Worker Co-Ops
A business that is owned and controlled by its employees, who share in both the decision-making and the profits of the business. In a worker co-op, every worker who meets basic eligibility requirements can become a co-owner of the business, which comes with the right to vote for and serve on the board of directors.