Projects

As further described in Evolving Corporate Business Engagement in Community and Economic Development, changes in the economy are increasing the alignment between businesses’ bottom-line interests and the traditional goals of…

Upstream Illinois, prepared for Current, lays out a roadmap for the Chicago region to grow and sustain a globally significant Inclusive Blue Economy. The report summarizes findings from an analysis of…

Portland’s Inclusive Economic Growth Plan presents an ambitious plan for Portland to develop into a next generation model for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the emerging economy. The report…

Leading financial and development stakeholders in the United Kingdom are exploring how U.K. financial institutions can expand their capacity to effectively make place-based impact investments. This paper synthesizes lessons from…

This August 2018 presentation to a Council on Foundations conference describes the changing drivers of growth in the next economy, presents the data and analysis demonstrating why we must undertake…

Following a detailed market analysis of the metals, machinery and equipment (MM&E) sector in the South Suburbs of Cook County (the “Southland”), this concept paper proposes an intervention to re-establish…

Researched and published with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this report from Mass Economics and RW Ventures offers insight on innovative and potentially more effective opportunities for…

ScaleUP Sacramento presents a framework and action agenda to generate inclusive economic development for the Sacramento region. Building from and supplementing existing studies of the region’s major assets and economic…

The City of Charlottesville has been increasingly confronting its history of racial inequality, spurred in part by the events during the Summer of Hate, especially on August 12, 2017. The…

Food and beverage manufacturing and packaging is a major opportunity for inclusive cluster-based development in the Chicagoland region (see RW Ventures’ Chicagoland FOOD report). Cook County’s South Suburbs are home…

The South Suburban Economic Growth Initiative (SSEGI) brings together community, industry, and government to reestablish the South Suburbs as an economic powerhouse. It is a wide-reaching and ambitious convening of…

This document is the culmination of an innovative, two-year effort to develop an integrated and mutually reinforcing set of strategies and initiatives to drive growth in four contiguous Chicago neighborhoods:…

Chicago TREND (Transforming Retail Economics of Neighborhood Development) combines innovative predictive analytics, deal brokering and financial products to support “retail on the leading edge” of emerging neighborhood markets. The new…

This report, written in partnership with the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC), highlights the opportunities for driving inclusive regional growth through the collaborative development of the Chicagoland region’s food manufacturing…

Chicago TREND (Transforming Retail Economics of Neighborhood Development) combines innovative predictive analytics, deal brokering and financial products to support “retail on the leading edge” of emerging neighborhood markets. The new…

This set of documents reflects recommendations for leveraging urban industrial corridors in Indianapolis, Indiana in ways that support high-growth-potential regional clusters. The project was undertaken by RW Ventures in partnership…

This presentation, delivered to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s leadership team, provides a set of strategic redevelopment scenarios for a 31-acre site the foundation owns in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of…

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, accepting the recommendations of her Council of Economic Advisors, adopted Partnering for Prosperity: An Economic Growth Action Agenda for Cook County, a report developed…

Prepared for Cook County by its Council of Economic Advisors, Metropolis Strategies and RW Ventures, this Action Agenda begins by addressing Cook County’s role in the regional economy, in light…

The Milwaukee 7 (M7) released a draft of its Framework for Economic Growth at the November meeting of its Regional Economic Development Advisory Council.  M7 engaged public, private and civic stakeholders from…

The plan was developed at the request of Mayor Rahm Emanuel by World Business Chicago and a team of consultants, including RW Ventures. It begins with an overview of the…

This report, written jointly by RW Ventures and Innovation Network for Communities, explores opportunities for Chicago-area firms arising from the increasing market demand for energy- and resource-efficient products and services….

MyHomeEQ, a joint venture of RW Ventures and CNT Energy, officially debuted in the Chicagoland market as part of Energy Impact Illinois (EI2), a CMAP-led initiative for more energy-efficient buildings.  As the online…

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin and the Chief Executives of Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties convened on September…

Prepared in partnership with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program for “Global Metro Summit 2010: Delivering the Next Economy,” this policy brief formally introduces the concept of metropolitan business planning,…

This report explores how the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s GO TO 2040 plan will influence the performance of the regional economy. The report offers a framework for understanding regional…

This concept paper, reporting on a project collaboratively developed by RW Ventures and O-H Community Partners, offers recommendations for catalyzing the emergence of a large-scale market in building energy efficiency…

This report, prepared for the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Bridging the Digital Divide, outlines a comprehensive plan for achieving universal digital excellence, as vital to the future of a global…

The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program hired RW Ventures and Alen Amirkhanien to complete a preliminary assessment of Kansas City’s economy in the context of the Heartland region. This study…

These reports exemplify a line of work conducted with MetroEdge for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and other community development institutions across the country. RW Ventures conducts specialized market analysis…

Prepared by Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance and Bob Weissbourd (when at Shorebank Advisory Services, Inc.), this Start-Up Business and Implementation Plan describes a project to open a loan production office…