Our advanced tier of strengthening services, BALLE Bold is for networks interested in increasing their impact on specific business sectors or local economies as a whole. With an eye toward leveraging and learning from the collective experience of network members, BALLE Bold is a platform for innovative partnerships, providing access to a range of financial, consulting, and other resources.

BALLE Building Blocks

BALLE will manage a roster of economic development consultants, many of them current and former BALLE network leaders, trained in BALLE’s own new Building Blocks method. Under the stewardship of a team of BALLE trustees and network leaders, BALLE will provide access for network members, state and local governments, and others to the latest ideas and approaches for building Living Economies as well as analytical services such as leakage studies, cluster analyses, and asset assessments.

Economic Justice Initiative

There is an historic opportunity before us, and BALLE is acting now to address the issue of economic justice in our local communities, and ultimately in our country and the global economy. The BALLE Economic Justice Initiative is committed to creating new models of economic development though which communities left out of ownership opportunities in the old industrial economy gain ownership positions in the emerging local living economies.

We aim to provide the viable alternative to outdated/ineffective “economic development” practices, which have typically consisted of attempting to entice/subsidize non-local businesses into communities in exchange for low-wage service jobs and instability. We envision communities largely self-reliant in basic needs, where entrepreneurship and local business ownership are the primary modes of economic security, with firm roots in healthy neighborhoods and the burgeoning green economy.

We are beginning this undertaking by forming a committee of people committed to economic justice with experience in business development, network development, and local food and energy systems, green building, clothing design and manufacturing, recycling and reuse, independent retail, and the other building blocks of local living economies. We especially look to members of low-income communities to help us determine what goods and services are most needed to create economic and environmental sustainability in their communities.

Our intentions are: 1) to help BALLE networks assist entrepreneurs from historically disadvantaged communities in starting, expanding, and strengthening businesses that build a local living economy, and 2) to diversify BALLE networks, conferences, board, and committees.

The task forces are:

• Business education, to develop business education programs for BALLE networks serving historically disadvantaged communities

• New network development, to identify and support community leaders in creating and running new BALLE networks in historically disadvantaged communities, with an initial focus on Newark, NJ

• Enterprise development, to help start and strengthen businesses needed to build local self-reliance in historically disadvantaged communities where BALLE networks are located

• Network diversification, to support existing BALLE networks in reaching out to leaders from disadvantaged communities for steering committee positions and other leadership roles

• Conference diversification, to advise the conference committee

For further information and updates, please click here.

Social Impact Leadership Coalition

The Social Impact Leadership Coalition (SILC) is a “network of networks” comprised of 14 national non-profit organizations, including BALLE, that focus on socially responsible business (people, profit, and planet) and issues of economic justice.

SILC works to expand our ability to share best practices and build strong partnerships among networks of business leaders and social entrepreneurs, increase the relevance of socially responsible business practices in communities of color, and expand the impact of programs that support diverse entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders.

SILC's work:

• Increasing the relevance and use of socially responsible business practices in communities of color

• Working to identify and create opportunities for success for entrepreneurs of color

• Enabling successful business leaders, investors and donors to share their expertise in “giving back” to local communities and stakeholders

• Building mutually beneficial partnerships between founding SILC organizations and other business networks, especially those that represent and support entrepreneurs of color

• Promoting innovative models of leadership and partnership in the socially responsible business sector