Organizational Support
Capacity Building ProgramsFundamental to successful community development are strong community-based developers, who can successfully promote, construct, and manage affordable housing and other much-needed commercial and community facilities. To support their success, Twin Cities LISC has offered operating support and capacity building programs to community development corporations since 1991.
When LISC began in 1988 in St. Paul, there were a handful of one- and two-person CDCs producing perhaps one or two homes each year. LISC's capacity building support through its programs have played an important role in helping CDCs build their development capacity.
The Twin Cities Fund for Neighborhood Development (TCFND) and the Fund for Affordable Production (FAP) focus on enhancing the level and impact of community development projects in St. Paul and Minneapolis core neighborhoods and affordable housing production throughout the Twin Cities.
Both programs offer a combination of general operating support, flexible management assistance grants, and ongoing access to technical assistance and training opportunities. In return, the programs offer investors—and the community—a framework for accountability by tying grant disbursements to results, based on annual outcome-based performance measures.