National and International Organizations and Projects

• AFL-CIO: www.aflcio.org for links to Corporate Affairs Department, the Office of Worker Investment, the Center for Working Capital and the Center for Workplace Democracy.
• Working for America Institute:www.workingforamerica.org   American unions are building high road partnerships in communities all around the country. The AFL-CIO has created the Working for America Institute (formerly the Human Resources Development Institute) to support these labor-led strategies for building skills and raising living standards in our communities.
• Canadian Labour Congress:www.clc-ctc.ca
• Canadian Labour and Business Centre: www.clbc.ca is an independent national labour-business organization whose mission is to contribute to economic growth and the betterment of society by improving business-labour relations in Canada.
• Center for Policy Alternatives. www.cfpa.org CFPA tracks innovative state legislation on economic development and other subjects; historically supported state ETI legislation.
• Steelworkers: www.uswa.org    For links to one of the most progressive international unions fighting for jobs and communities.  
• Steelworkers, Canada: www.uswa.ca For links to the Canadian office of USWA.
• Economic Policy Institute:www.epinet.org Labor-sponsored think tank analyzes economic, trade and labor market issues.
• The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: www.policyalternatives.ca The CCPA is an independent, non-profit research organization, to promote research on economic and social policy issues from a progressive point of view.
• The Corporation for Enterprise Development: www.cfed.org Progressive economic development think tank. Developed comprehensive state economic plans commissioned by Montana and Maryland state AFL-CIOs.
• Council for Urban Economic Development:www.cued.org CUED is the leading organization for economic development professionals. Publications, research, training and many hotlinks.
• The Foundation for Enterprise Development: www.fed.org A non-profit organization which provides leading-edge employee ownership strategies to entrepreneurs and key executives.
• The Worker-Ownership Institute (WOI): www.workerownership.org WOI serves as a forum in which management and labor from employee-owned companies, and ESOPs, come together to discuss their triumphs and failures, and to learn from each other.WOI is jointly sponsored by the Steelworkers and the management of member companies which are partly or wholly employee-owned and employ members of the AFL-CIO-CLC, or other unions.
• Capital Ownership Group: http//:cog.kent.edu    COG is an informal association of people from 14 countries on 6 continents whose mission is to broaden employee and democratic ownership.
• Shared Capitalism Network:www.sharedcapitalism.org The Institute’s mission is to catalyze critically needed progress at the local, regional and antional leveles toward a more equitable and sustainable form of free enterprise.
• National Center for Employee Ownership: www.nceo.org NCEO is a non-profit membership and research organization supporting employee ownership/participation.
• SHARE: www.share.ca The Shareholder Association for Research and Education is a national not-for-profit organization helping pension funds to build sound investment practices, to protect the interest of plan beneficiaries and to contribute to a just and healthy society. SHARE is working cooperatively with Carleton University and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto to develop a comprehensive trustee education program for union pension trustees in Canada. Tessa Hebb is the Director of the new Capital Strategies Project at Carleton.

Investment Organizations

• Trillium Asset Management Corporation: www.trilliuminvest.com  For over eighteen years, Trillium Asset Management Corporation, a majority employee- and women-owned firm, has been a leader in the social investment field. Trillium promotes good returns along with social, economic and workplace justice. Their Advocacy Fund seeks long term capital appreciation through socially responsible investments. Two of the authors of Working Capital were based at Trillium.
• KPS Special Situations Fund: www.kpsfund.com  KPS is a fund that invests in troubled unionized companies, and was established through the assistance of organized labor, with an original capitalization of $200 million. KPS invests normally in larger transactions, and supports labor involvement, employee ownership, etc. Call Michael Psaros at 212-338-5104.
• Cigna America Fund: (860-534-2504) Invests in public and private debt issued by companies at which a minimum of 25% of the workforce is represented by union. Assets at $240 million.
• ULLICO Separate Account P: www.ullico.com   ULLICO is a union-owned insurance and financial services company which manages a private capital program, Separate Account P, to provide equity, debt and mezzanine financing to publicly-traded and privately-owned companies. Prioritizes organized companies or requires card check.
• Quebec Solidarity Fund:www.fondsftq.com The Solidarity Fund QFL is a labour-sponsored development capital fund that appeals to the solidarity of Québecers to help create and maintain jobs in Québec by investing in small and medium-sized businesses. Owned by 400,000 worker investors, with over $3 billion in assets. Elaborate website in French and English.
• Working Opportunity Fund, British Columbia, Canada: www.wofund.com The Working Opportunity Fund is a labour-sponsored venture capital fund owned entirely by approximately 32,000 individual working British Columbians. The Fund currently has over $360 million in assets, and has almost half of its assets invested in small and medium sized BC businesses.
• Crocus Investment Fund, Manitoba, Canada: www.crocusfund.com The Crocus Investment Fund is a labour-sponsored investment fund, created to retain capital in Manitoba and use that capital for economic growth and job creation in small and medium-sized Manitoba businesses, including capital to facilitate employee ownership on a large scale, with over $130 million in assets.
• First Ontario Fund, Ontario, Canada: www.globefund.com First Ontario is the first true labour-sponsored fund in Ontario with $57 million in assets, created to retain and invest capital in Ontario.
• Workers Investment Fund, New Brunswick:www.workersinvestmentfund.com The Workers Investment Fund is a labour-sponsored to invest capital in businesses that will provide long-term share appreciation for investors and the development of a stronger sustainable economy.
• The AFL-CIO Housing and Building Investment Trusts: www.aflcio-hit.com HIT-BIT is a set of investment trusts governed by a labor-management board of trustees which have invested pension funds in thousands of union-built commercial and housing construction projects.ETIs have been allowed in manufacturing real estate.

Regional Labor, Community and Economic Development Programs

• The Center for Labor and Community Research:www. www.clcr.org Extensive regional and national experience in early warning systems for plant closures and union and community strategic planning. Based in Chicago.
• ICA Group: www.ica-group.org (pending soon) The ICA Group is a regional and national not-for-profit organization which seeks to create and save jobs through the development and strengthening of employee-owned and community-based businesses. Based in Boston area.
• Ohio Employee Ownership Network: www.kent.edu/oeoc OEOC provides a broad range of services for employee owned companies and those who want to establish them.
• Garment Industry Development Corporation: www.gidc.org Extensive experience in industry modernization and worker training and education in NYC; co-sponsored by UNITE.Provides assistance nationally.
• Steel Valley Authority: Extensive regional and national experience in early warning systems, employee ownership, state and community planning and worker-friendly strategies for job creation and retention.  Access to Dun and Bradstreet. Based in Pittsburgh area. Email: t.w.croft@att.net or admin.sva@att.net
• Center on Wisconsin Strate­gies: www.cows.org Labor-friendly think tank conducts regional and national economic research and policy studies. Based in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Worker Center, King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO.The Center has a broad range of experience in economic development, employee ownership, capital investments, education and training including school-to-work. Email: wc@ricochet.net
• Working Partnerships USA: www.atwork.org Experience in community economic development policy, community economic analysis, community organizing, strategic planning and fundraising.
• Labor-Management Council for Economic Renewal: c/o UAW Region 1A, 313-291-1474 The Council has published numerous materials related to technology, work organization and unions, especially in the auto corridor. Expertise in strategic planning, industry/sector economics, labor-management relations, worker training and education, and economic development.
• Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership: www.wisaflcio.org Reached at Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, extensive experience in collaborative labor/management industry modernization and training in the Milwaukee area.

Capital/Economic/Corporate Research

• The Financial Markets Center: www.fmcenter.org FMC is an independent, nonprofit institute that provides research and education resources to grassroots groups, unions, policymakers and journalists interested in the Federal Reserve System and financial markets. Through its work, the Center seeks to promote democratic values, accountable public institutions and improved living standards for ordinary citizens.
• Preamble Center: www.preamble.org  The Preamble Center is an independent research and public education organization based in Washington, D.C.   Preamble works in partnership with a broad concerned about the pressing social, economic and political challenges facing the United States.Review of corporate downsizing and the Multilat­eral Agreement on Invest­ments (MAI)
• Left Business Observer: www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html An 8-page more-or-less monthly newsletter on economics and politics in the U.S. and the world at large.
• The Multinational Monitor:www.essential.org/monitor  The Multinational Monitor tracks corporate activity, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, worker health and safety, labor union issues and the environment.
• Corporate Watch: www.corpwatch.org For a good online magazine and resource center to track corporate restructuring: corpwatch.org/trac/home
• People's Network on Banking Credit and Capital web site’s Community Reinvestment Lending Data Service:pnbcc.essential.org/pnbcc-cgi/sbl.cgi Small Business Loan Data for Individual States or Counties. Small business loan data is provided in tables that list each lender reporting small business loans in the selected state or county. Each table provides a different set of small business loan data. The tables are based on the small business loan data reported by depository institutions pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations established by the federal banking agencies.
• Good Jobs: http://www.ctj.org/itep/gjf.htm, managed by long-time labor researcher Greg LeRoy, keeps track of corporate subsidy abuse. His book “No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Job Subsidies Accountable” is available from Grassroots Policy Project, 202-387-2933. Reachable at goodjobs@ctj.org.
• Jerome Levy Economics Institute: www.levy.org  Jerome Levy Economics Institute is a nonprofit nonpartisan, fully endowed, public policy research organization using economics to make a positive contribution to society and to improve the human condition.
• The Electronic Policy Network:www.epn.orgEPN is the front door to progressive policy on the Web. A network of top policy and research institutions, EPN provides timely information and leading ideas about the policies and politics that shape our world.
• Corporate Information: www.corporateinformation.com Research a company (public or private, foreign or domestic); this site has several features.
• Hoovers Online: www.hoovers.com Comprehensive source of information on publicly-traded companies.
• EDGAR On Line: www.edgar-online.com   SEC Filings.
• Thomas Register Online:   www.thomasregister.com Online data base of manufacturing firms - product descriptions; some corporate background, including an estimated sales.
• John Brandow Company: www.brandow.com Great information on state business vitality and retention scores, and other measures of economic health.

Investment and Funding Information

• Proxy Voting Service: www.pvstf.com Assists Taft-Hartley community in proxy voting while promoting long-term shareholder value.
• Pensions & Investments: www.pionline.com Money management's newspaper, covering the $7 trillion dollar institutional market.
• Community Development Venture Capital Alliance: www.cdvca.org CDVCA is a trade group of forty community development venture capital funds, focused on mobilizing equity capital in low-income communities.            
• National Community Capital Association: www.communitycapital.org NCCA is a trade association of nonprofit groups that invest in poor communities.Provides technical assistance for loan fund business planning, etc., but is not necessarily pro-union.
• Community Development Financial Institutions Fund: www.treas.gov/cdfi Official site for CDFI Fund, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and fund community development loan funds, community development venture capital and similar efforts. Byzantine regulations.
• Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov SBA provides financial, technical and management assistance to support small businesses, including SBICs.Other federal agencies supporting economic development include the Economic Development Administration of the Commerce Department, and the Department of Labor, reachable through www.doc.gov and www.dol.gov.
• DOL’s OWRAP (worker readjustment) office has been supporting state use of dislocated worker rapid response dollars for layoff aversion and pre-feasibility efforts. (Contact Doug Holl 202-219-5577).
• Social Venture Network:www.svn.org SVN has advanced the movement for social responsibility in business and the creation of a more just, humane and sustainable society.
• Social Investment Network:   www.socialinvest.org The Social Investment Forum site offers comprehensive information, contacts & resources on socially responsible investing.
• Neighborhood Funders Group: www.nfg.org A progressive funders association, the NFG is a national network of grantmakers working to expand support for organizations that help low-income people improve their communities.It has initiated Working Group on Organized Labor and Community.
• National Venture Capital Association: www.nvca.org Trade organization in U.S.
• Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA): www.cvca.ca Venture trade association in Canada.
• Investor Responsibility Research Center: www.irrc.org IRRC's mission is to provide high quality impartial research on companies and shareholders worldwide.
• Venture Capital Resource Library: www.vfinance.com  Corporate-sponsored library listing venture capital firms, angel investors, lenders, and investment banks.
• Asset Alternatives On-Line: www.assetalt.com Web site serving venture capital, LBO and other alternative investment professionals.

Etc.

• Jim Hightower: www.jimhightower.com Well-known hellraiser from Texas, and populist speaker at the 1996 Heartland Forum.
• Straightgoods.com: www.straightgoods.com Straight Goods is an interesting new watchdog site working for Canadian consumers and citizens. The purpose of Straight Goods is to help you save money, protect your rights and untangle spin.