DTI Strategy

Key Issues

1. Over the next decade there will be a major generational transfer of leadership in all fields of the nonprofit sector.
   
   
2. The community development field must be transformed into comprehensive and collaborative community building in order to dramatically improve the quality of life in communities plagued by such issues as high crime, inadequate education systems, lack of affordable housing, low wealth, youth alienation, lack of livable wage jobs, business disinvestment, an ongoing re-entry of individuals returning from prison unprepared to productively engage with society, and a concentration of low-income families and individuals living in one place.
   
   
3. Even high-performing community organizations throughout the nonprofit sector are usually undercapitalized, with funding limited to support for specific programs, and inadequate support for organizational management and infrastructure.
   
   
4. Flexible, “mission-oriented” funding is required to support both leadership succession and a shift in strategy from being trapped in isolated fields of work to collaborating with others to undertake comprehensive community building. Mission-oriented funding is also required to promote a sustainable business model for high-performing community organizations.
   
   
5. Definitions of success must include achieving improvements in the overall quality of life in disadvantaged communities, and building organizations that are effectively managed and have leadership depth well beyond the executive director.
   

DTI's Approach

1. During the last 25 years, DTI has been the most innovative and effective organization in the America at growing a generation of community leaders, especially leaders of color, in the community building field.
   
   
2. DTI will pursue strategic opportunities to:
   
   - grow the next generation of leaders in the nonprofit sector, especially leaders of color, to step into leadership positions during the next decade;
   
   - be a catalyst to influence the isolated fields within the nonprofit sector (including family and children’s services, affordable housing, youth programs, workforce development, education, and arts and culture) to collaboratively envision and undertake comprehensive community building strategies that will tangibly improve the quality of life in disadvantaged communities;
   
   - promote and create vehicles to provide flexible, mission oriented funding to high-performing community organizations throughout the nonprofit sector to enable them to engage in community building, and to sustain them in a time of tremendous change;
   
   - undertake cutting-edge research and the development of new programs to advance these goals; and,
   
   - serve as a powerful voice, nationally and in communities throughout America, to advance the practice of community building, the development of the next generation of leaders, and the investment of mission oriented funding to sustain high-performing community organizations.