BALLE Network Services

At its core, BALLE's work is about community empowerment. BALLE networks of local businesses are working at the grassroots to reconnect eaters with farmers, investors with entrepreneurs, and business owners with their employees, neighbors and ecosystems.

BALLE's mission is to catalyze, strengthen and connect networks of locally owned independent businesses dedicated to building strong local living economies. Our services are designed to facilitate the development of community networks of independent businesses, to guide networks through various stages of development, to synthesize and communicate the best network development ideas and practices, and to build the larger movement for local living economies.

If you're not currently a BALLE network and would like to learn more, please visit contact us, or look for existing networks in your area.

Available to all BALLE member networks, our current suite of services includes:

BALLE Conference & Discounted Admission

Our annual BALLE Business Conference brings together hundreds of business owners, entrepreneurs, economic development professionals, network leaders, and community leaders to share replicable, applicable initiatives emerging from the grassroots for building local living economies. Come connect, share, and be inspired by the entrepreneurs and thought leaders building the business models we need for local food systems, community capital, local living economy manufacturing, green building, and energy efficiency. Please see our conference page, and sign up for the biweekly BALLE Buzz e-newsletter to receive updates.

Members Website

The Members Website was created for the staff, board members and all those involved in supporting the success of local BALLE networks. It includes a large document library and an encyclopedia of network development resources, all regularly updated by BALLE staff and network leaders. Here you’ll find detailed information on how to develop an effective organization, numerous program ideas, contact information for other network leaders, an archive of newsletters and Network Leader Roundup Call notes, and much more.

BALLE Webinars

Our monthly Accelerating Community Capital webinar series reviews pioneering efforts around the country with respect to local banking, credit unions, slow-money investing, cooperatives, self-directed IRAs, local investing clubs, and local stock exchanges. This series is aimed at community investors, instigators, organizers, foundations, innovative bankers, businesses looking for capital, and anyone else committed to unleashing local money to build local living economies -- and BALLE Networks access the webinars for free!

BALLE Manuals

With our network partners, BALLE co-publishes "how-to" manuals for sustainable local business and network development. BALLE Guides provide easy-to-use advice and case studies for business networks who want to expand their programming and accelerate their impact. Current guides include:

How to Build a BALLE Network [NEW, available soon!]

Written by BALLE Executive Director Michelle Long and the staff of BALLE and local network Sustainable Connections, plus case studies and templates from over 20 additional networks, this 250-page manual is loaded with resources and ideas based on the work of networks throughout North America. Email us to reserve a copy.

Think Local First [available now; updated version available soon!]

The proven how-to manual for organizing, incorporating, funding, and sustaining a Local First campaign, often a community's first step on the path to a living economy. Email us to order a copy.

Community Food Enterprise [available now online]

Developed by Michael Shuman and Alissa Barron, in partnership with the Wallace Center at Winrock International, this report chronicles the social, environmental and financial performance of 24 locally owned food enterprises including producers, processors, grocers, restaurants, training programs and other food-related businesses from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. To access the report online, or to download the full report or specific case studies as PDFs, go to www.communityfoodenterprise.org.

Green Economy Toolkit [NEW, available now online]

Written by Leanne Krueger-Braneky and staff, and based on the successful efforts of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, this guide is a must read for anyone interested in incubating green jobs within locally owned businesses and creating local policy change that supports green collar work. This manual will be available in hard copy at a reduced fee for current BALLE members. Contact SBN Philadelphia to order a copy.

Toward Zero Waste: A How-To Manual for Communities [NEW, available now online]

Written by Derek Long and staff, and based on three years of successful efforts by Sustainable Connections working with 250 independent businesses, this guide includes: an overview of the Toward Zero Waste Initiative in Whatcom County, WA, including implementation process and budget; an analysis of barriers to implementation, potential incentives, analysis of impact, lessons learned, and best practices; and samples of marketing materials, outreach documents, case studies, language and tools used by participants to implement waste reduction in their businesses. The manual also include information on other communities piloting innovative waste management programs. Visit the Sustainable Connections website for a copy.

Growing Local Living Economies: A Grassroots Approach to Local Economic Development [NEW, available soon]

Written by BALLE Fellow Michael Shuman and Kate Poole this workbook is an in-depth guide to the local living economy approach to economic development. The workbook navigates you and your community through twelve chapters organized around a set of tasks that will help you build a local living economy in your hometown.

BALLE Fellowship

The BALLE Fellowship is an annual, cohort-based program for linking and strengthening the pioneering BALLE network leaders who are creating the local living economies movement. The Fellowship consists of 4-6 in-person immersion retreats that build leadership competencies, foster peer-to-peer learning and community, and harness training from world-class experts.  For more information, please see our BALLE Fellowship Page.

Leakage Calculators

The BALLE calculators were developed to give a community some of the essential tools it needs to create a strong local living economy (LLE). At a discounted access fee, BALLE members can use these dynamic tools to instantly provide the serious LLE planner with critical information. Designed to help you decipher exactly what your community buys and imports, the calculators reveal the obvious in-demand business and job creation opportunities available to you. Learn more.

Local First Campaigns

"Think Local First" is a term developed and trademarked by BALLE networks to refer to our commitment to our communities. A Local First campaign educates consumers and businesses about the economic, social and often environmental advantages that independent, local businesses bring to a community. Resources include a How-To Guide, program samples from dozens of communities in our Members Website, and an annual Buy Local Week. For more information, see our Local First campaigns page.

Helping You Tell Your Story

With media outreach, (mainstream and social media), a video library, and regular articles written by national thought leaders in response to your most frequently asked questions, we support you in communicating the impacts and benefits of local living economies and the importance of supporting your work.