The Democracy Collaborative focuses on the role community economic stability plays as an essential foundation of civic practice and democratic life. Our research, training, and action agenda centers on: Community wealth building innovations and strategies; Programs designed to create individual and common assets for all Americans The role anchor institutions (such as universities) can play in strengthening local economies.

The mission of the Democracy Collaborative is to change the prevailing paradigm of economic development in the United States to achieve the following ends: broaden ownership over capital, anchoring capital in place, stabilizing community, and building an equitable and inclusive economy that is environmentally, socially and institutionally sustainable. Towards these ends, the Democracy Collaborative develops networks of mutually supporting multi-stakeholder cooperative in which equity in the businesses resides with enterprise worker-owners.