Community and Economic Development

Creating economic opportunity for low income people is essential to accessing the American Dream. Douglas Gould and Company has worked with a wide range of clients who have been devoted to strategies that create an escalator approach involving education, workforce development and strategic investments in communities.

Living Cities is an extraordinary philanthropic, corporate and public sector partnership established to bring opportunities and the power of mainstream markets to urban neighborhoods and residents historically left behind. Over its first fifteen years, the partnership invested more than $543 million in 23 cities, helping to build communities that exceed $15.9 billion --- a remarkable leverage ratio of 29:1. As it reached this milestone of time and investment, Living Cities hired Douglas Gould and Company to create a new strategy and language focused on the latest tools to fire up the economic engine of America's cities, an engine that propels the national economy. We then helped create and promote a series of events to seek input on a new urban policy agenda for the U.S. and to galvanize support to significantly expand the scope of investment. We generated significant media visibility for the organization in targeted cities.

Helping low wage workers gain access to the wealth and promise of the U.S. economy requires better education, job training, health and child care benefits and jobs that pay. The Ford Foundation's economic development unit funded a multi-year project to shift the debate from a focus on poverty to creating an economy that works. Douglas Gould and Company led a comprehensive opinion research project to reframe the debate and then helped advocates for low income families learn how to more effectively communicate by conducting trainings, by designing and promulgating new materials and by building a frequently visited Web-based resource, EconomyThatWorks.Net.

As it embarked on a regional campaign to raise and deploy new resources to help low income women, the Foundation hired Douglas Gould and Company to brand its new initiative and create a strategic communications plan. Stepping Stones has become the Foundation's signature program and the main focus of its work.

As United Way sought to evolve its leadership to facilitate lasting reforms that give low income people greater assets and better benefits, it hired Douglas Gould and Company to create a new brand for its program. We created over 100 new names and collaborated with research partner Public Knowledge to test alternative messages and themes for its national and local work. We recommended the Economic Security Initiative, which has been enthusiastically adopted.