Community Development Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Community Development distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

PiqCue — piqcue.com/community-development/cheatsheet

Quick Reference

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)

An approach that focuses on discovering and mobilizing the existing strengths, skills, and resources within a community rather than cataloging its needs and deficiencies. Developed by John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann at Northwestern University.

Community Organizing

A process by which people living in proximity to each other are brought together to act in their shared self-interest. Organizers build power through relationships, collective action, and strategic campaigns to influence institutional decision-making.

Social Capital

The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a community that enable it to function effectively. Social capital includes bonding ties within groups, bridging ties across groups, and linking ties to institutions of power.

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

A research methodology in which community members are active partners in defining problems, collecting data, analyzing findings, and implementing solutions. PAR challenges the traditional separation between researcher and subject.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)

Specialized financial institutions that provide credit, capital, and financial services to underserved communities. CDFIs include community development banks, credit unions, loan funds, and venture capital funds certified by the U.S. Treasury.

Capacity Building

The process of strengthening a community's abilities, skills, organizational infrastructure, and resources so it can effectively identify and address its own issues over the long term.

Gentrification

The process by which investment and higher-income residents move into a historically disinvested neighborhood, often raising property values and rents and displacing long-term, lower-income residents and businesses.

Community Land Trusts (CLTs)

Nonprofit organizations that acquire and hold land in trust for the permanent benefit of a community. CLTs typically provide long-term affordable housing by separating the ownership of land from the ownership of buildings on it.

Collective Impact

A framework for cross-sector collaboration in which organizations from different sectors agree on a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone support organization.

Equity and Inclusion

The principle that community development must deliberately address systemic inequalities based on race, ethnicity, gender, income, disability, and other dimensions of identity to ensure that all residents benefit from and participate in development processes.

Key Terms at a Glance

Anchor Institution:A large, rooted organization such as a hospital or university that leverages its resources for local community benefit.

Asset-Based Community Development:An approach that identifies and mobilizes existing community strengths rather than focusing on deficits.

Brownfield:A previously developed property that may be contaminated and requires cleanup before reuse for community purposes.

Capacity Building:Strengthening a community's skills, organizations, and resources to address its own challenges sustainably.

Civic Engagement:Individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern through democratic participation.

Collective Impact:A structured framework for cross-sector collaboration around a common agenda with shared measurement and backbone support.

Community Benefit Agreement:A legally binding contract between developers and community groups ensuring specific local benefits from development projects.

Community Development Corporation:A nonprofit organization focused on revitalizing a specific neighborhood through housing, economic development, and community services.

Community Development Financial Institution:A certified financial institution providing credit and capital to underserved communities.

Community Land Trust:A nonprofit that holds land in trust and applies resale restrictions to maintain permanent housing affordability.

Community Organizing:The process of building collective power among community members to act on shared interests and influence institutions.

Community Reinvestment Act:A 1977 U.S. law requiring banks to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low-income areas.

Empowerment:The process by which people gain control over the decisions and resources that affect their lives.

Equitable Development:Development that ensures fair distribution of benefits and burdens across all community segments, especially marginalized groups.

Food Desert:An area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, often in low-income neighborhoods lacking grocery stores.

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