These terms are drawn from the lived experience of community stewards, practitioners, and movement builders. Definitions reflect usage in the field, not just academic or financial conventions.
Capital
Financial resources and assets that can be invested to support community priorities.
Capital Gap
The difference between the funding needed and the funding currently available.
Capital Stack
The combination of different funding sources used to finance a project or initiative.
Capital Steward
A person or institution responsible for directing financial resources in alignment with community priorities, values, and long-term impact.
Catalytic Capital
Flexible, early, or risk-tolerant funding that helps unlock additional resources or launch new efforts.
Community Development Corporation (CDC)
An organization that develops and manages community assets such as housing, land, or local infrastructure.
Community Economic Infrastructure
The systems and structures—such as funds, land trusts, cooperatives, and enterprises—that enable communities to build and manage wealth.
Community Economic Stewardship
The coordinated care and governance of land, labor, and capital to support community vision and priorities.
Community Ownership
Structures that ensure communities hold long-term control and benefit from assets and resources in their place.
Community Steward
A person or group responsible for advancing a community's vision, priorities, and long-term well-being.
Community Vision & Priorities
The future a community is working toward, and the goals that guide decisions and resource allocation.
Community Wealth Building
An approach to economic development that centers community ownership, local control, and broad benefit-sharing.
Cooperative (Co-op)
A business or organization owned and governed by its members (workers, consumers, or community residents).
Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
A charitable giving vehicle that allows funds to be set aside and distributed over time to nonprofit organizations.
Economic Power
The ability to shape how resources, relationships, and value flow within an economic system.
Economic Strategy
The set of choices and actions that shape how a community builds, controls, and benefits from economic activity.
Ecosystem
A network of organizations, enterprises, and initiatives working together toward shared goals within a place or sector.
Entity Ecosystem
A group of connected organizations (such as nonprofits, cooperatives, funds, and enterprises) that work together to achieve community goals.
Entity Mapping
A process of visualizing how entities, assets, and capital flows are structured and connected within a community ecosystem.
Governance
Who makes decisions and sets direction.
Integrated / Full Spectrum Capital
The use of multiple types of capital—grants, loans, equity, public funding and more—in a coordinated way to support community goals.
Integrated Capital Strategy
A coordinated approach that aligns different types of capital to support a shared community vision and plan.
Integrated Power
The alignment of economic, political, and cultural power to create lasting, systemic change.
Just Transition
A vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative one.
Labor
The work people do, and how that work is organized, valued, and shared.
Land
The physical spaces and natural resources that communities live on, steward, and depend upon.
Management
Who carries out day-to-day operations.
Ownership
Who holds assets and benefits economically.
Stewardship
Who ensures that decisions, assets, and power remain aligned with community values over time.
Term Sheet
A document that outlines the key terms and conditions of a financial agreement before a formal contract is signed.