Overview

Getting ahead in today's economy depends on more than having a job and a growing income, but increasingly on the ability to accumulate a wide range of assets, particularly owning a home, pursuing a post-secondary education, starting a business, and securing a nest-egg for retirement. However, many Americans have few or no assets. While there is an asset building system already in place through the tax code that encourages homeownership, small business development, investment, and savings for higher education and retirement, this system disproportionately benefits those families with higher incomes, better job benefits, and larger income tax liabilities. Lower income families are left behind with fewer and less attractive ways to build wealth. Through more inclusive asset building strategies, all families would have the opportunity to have a direct stake in the economy, become more financially independent, and bequeath wealth and opportunities to future generations.

Follow these links to learn more about asset building

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Statistics
• Essential Reading
• Asset Building Topics

Which Organizations Make up the Asset Building Field?
The idea of building assets for the poor was first proposed in the late 1980s by Professor Michael Sherraden. In his seminal 1991 book, Assets and the Poor, he articulated a theory of welfare based on assets, and proposed an asset-building tool called Individual Development Accounts, or IDAs-matched savings accounts for low-income persons typically used for homeownership, post-secondary education, and small business development. Sherraden has directed the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis since its founding in 1994, where he and his colleagues have continued to conduct research and evaluation efforts on IDAs and other asset building strategies.

Robert E. Friedman, founder of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), has been a pioneer in the field of asset development for the poor, especially in promoting policies and community-based programs for IDAs. Thanks largely to CFED, over 20,000 persons in the U.S. now have IDAs, all them supported by over 500 community-based organizations with matching funds coming from a variety of private and public sources. CFED is also spearheading a privately funded children's savings accounts initiative called SEED, designed to reduce intergenerational poverty and asset inequality .

Both CFED and CSD are leading state-level efforts to expand IDAs and the ownership of assets.

Three other national organizations are exclusively focused on building assets for the poor. They are the Initiative on Financial Security, directed by Lisa Mensah and housed at The Aspen Institute; the Institute on Assets and Social Policy headed by J. Larry Brown and located at Brandeis University; and the Asset Building Program of the New America Foundation, which is directed by Ray Boshara.

Many other local, national, and international asset building projects and initiatives have emerged over the last five years, assisted by generous support from a large number of foundations. Visit the Initiatives section to learn more about these organizations.