What We Do

Our nonprofit status allows us to hold property, accept grants, and receive tax-deductible donations.  We’re able to provide that service to any community group aligned with our mission, and this is a core part of our vision.  By acting as a “legal umbrella”, we hope to lower the barrier to entry for affordable housing development. 

Fiscal sponsorship is a relationship that allows us to leverage our relationships and reputation to support projects’ access to funding and other resources.  It also means we act as a backstop for legal and financial support. 

As much as possible, our approach is to produce fiscal sponsorship agreements that allow projects to maintain maximum autonomy and resident control, and minimum organizational financial or administrative overhead, while benefiting from the legal support.  We believe that a network of affordable housing projects that is federated and interdependent is key to resident empowerment and projects’ diversity and authenticity.

In addition to working with independent community groups through consultation or fiscal sponsorship, we also directly develop sustainable, permanently affordable housing projects in Bloomington.  Our first, flagship project is the Avalon Community Garden, a seven-bedroom permanently affordable cooperative house which will restore a historic community garden.

Modern community land trusts (CLTs) can take many forms. Our incorporation allows for a variety of models, including traditional CLTs, rental cooperatives, and more complicated mixed-equity arrangements.

Traditionally, a CLT is an organization that owns and develops land, while separating ownership of the land from the ownership of the buildings on it.

Learn more here.

Interested in transitioning your property into permanent affordability by selling your land while preserving equity? Send us a line.