Working together: Building capacity for community development

Community development partnerships (CDPs)-local intermediaries that gather support from foundations, corporations, and the public sector-are giving in creased attention to building the capacity of community development corpora tions (CDCs). This article evaluates CDPs' efforts to help nonprofit CDCs i ncrease their capacity to revitalize low-income communities. We identified five types of capacity and conducted interviews and focus groups with CDPs and CDCs across the nation. The nature of capacity and capacity building am ong CDCs, the ways partnerships help increase CDC capacity, what the partne rships and CDCs learn from each other, and how they could better gauge the effectiveness of capacity-building support were discussed. We learned that CDCs and CDPs have forged an effective alliance and continu e to work together: Community organizations require help in building capaci ty, and local partnerships provide the requisite funding, technical assista nce, and other elements to help them grow and serve their neighborhoods.