Top 10 Local Investing Features of 2024
Readers of The Main Street Journal: Thank you for contributing to our annual Top 10 List of Local Investing Features by voting with your views. Enjoy this list, and keep voting with your views in 2025!
(From lowest to highest number of views.)
Devin Thorpe is the Leonard Bernstein of the crowdfunding movement who orchestrates every dimension of it. Based in California, Thorpe has pumped out webinars, blogs, study groups, books, and conferences on the subject. Coming up on April 17-18, 2024, he will host his virtual SuperCrowd24 conference with an amazing roster of experts on local investment topics. We asked Devin about his work and his vision for the movement’s future.#9: The Legacy of the Bristol Pound
Readers who have asked for more coverage of local currencies will appreciate this week’s interview with Diana Finch, who has just written a book, Value Beyond Money, on her experiences presiding over the rise and fall of the Bristol Pound, one of the most ambitious local currency experiments in recent years. What was unique about the Bristol Pound was the involvement of the local government of Bristol, England. Civil servants were partially paid in the currency, and taxes could be partially paid in the currency, as well. Still, the municipality’s support didn’t last, and no business model for keeping the currency running on its own was ever developed. If your community wants to launch its own currency, you will appreciate the lessons Diana shares.#8: The Growing Danger of Crowdfunding Monopolies
The announcement by Mainvest, one of the most community-friendly federally registered investment crowdfunding portals, that it is shutting down in a few weeks is awful news. Sure, there are plenty of other portals operating, but nearly all of them have fledgling business models. Only a few portals are really succeeding. Three months ago, we noted with concern that of the 92 federally registered portals, the top two (Wefunder and StartEngine) accounted for 59% of last year’s business, and the top four accounted for 75%.#7: What is the Cost of NOT Investing in Distressed Neighborhoods?
One unique virtue of local investing is that it offers social as well as personal financial returns. We know that a community with a critical mass of healthy local businesses grows income, wealth, and jobs. That pays off to local investors in the form of better community services and lower taxes. We might quibble about what your social return might be from any specific local investment, but we know it’s not zero.#6: Marjorie Kelly Smashes the Idols of Capitalism
We have a hell of an interview for you in this week’s issue. If you have time for just one book this summer, please read Marjorie Kelly’s Wealth Supremacy. She’s an astute critic of what we are getting wrong in our economy, but she also has lots of ideas about what we can get right. One starting place is to rethink investment to benefit all stakeholders—not just investors but workers, community residents, and those on the receiving end of externalities. She has lots of great ideas about new investment opportunities in worker cooperatives, land trusts, public enterprises, and more.#5: Invest in a Local Economy University
I was excited to see a new movement to buy out and repurpose Goddard College in Vermont. Goddard has always had a green hue, but like many small schools, it has struggled financially in recent years. This week’s lead story is about a $5 million initiative, led by Cooperation Vermont and the Cooperation Vermont Community Land Trust, to purchase the school and create a Just Transition Campus: a place of transformational learning, experimentation, and community resilience. Supporting the initiative is a coalition of former Goddard students, faculty, staff, and alums trying to rescue and repurpose this beloved institution before the land and facilities are auctioned off to developers and speculators.#4: Chordata's Radical Reinvention of Investment
My first deep dive into local investment began a decade ago when I received a contract from Chelsea Green to write “Local Dollars, Local Sense.” The book required interviews with dozens of practitioners in the field, and I hired a recent Princeton graduate, Kate Poole, after being introduced by Schumacher Center’s Susan Witt. Kate was a Godsend and undertook amazing research and interviews. That effort was pivotal for both of us. For me, it ultimately culminated in The Main Street Journal. For her, it led to a journey into the world of investment advising and her co-founding Chordata Capital. This week’s issue of the MSJ Extra! features a conversation with Kate and her work partner, Tiffany Brown. #3: Does Your Community Want Its Own Home-Grown Investment Fund?
If so, The MSJ is pleased to announce a new webinar series on best practices in community investing with a team of seasoned organizers. Starting February 21, 2024, from 2-3 pm ET, Kevin Jones of Neighborhood Economics and I will host a twice-monthly interview series with community investment fund leaders from around the country. They will help decode the DNA of different designs, enabling you and your community to replicate them. Click here to tune in for each episode.#2: The Best Black Business Fund in America
I’ll be honest: The Ujima Fund is one of my favorite community investment funds. Why? Because it is one of the very few funds that views its mission as more than just lending to worthy businesses. It sets out to strengthen an entire local economy. The Ujima Fund’s agenda includes local purchasing, entrepreneurship support, anchor institution mobilization, coalition building, grassroots organizing, and even political action. It focuses on Black businesses in distressed neighborhoods in Boston, like Roxbury.And at the TOP of our list 🥁
#1: Ring In 2024 With "Bank of Dave"
One night this week, treat yourself and whoever else you can crowd into your living room to watch Bank of Dave, a new film (available on Netflix) about David Fishwick’s inspiring efforts to establish a local bank in 2011 in Burnley, a small town in northern England. Dave does the seemingly impossible—he defeats the big, monopolistic banking establishment in London to get the first new banking charter in 150 years. The film takes liberties with the real story—there’s a fictional concert by Def Leppard to raise capital for the bank, for example—but the broad outlines are true enough. Ultimately, the film makes the most powerful and moving case for local reinvestment since It’s a Wonderful Life. Finally, best wishes for a happy holiday season! May your best dreams for 2025 be local ones.
Happy New Year!