OppCo’s Origin Story

The idea for OppCo sprang from a conversation over coffee between community development veterans. They’d noticed that the growth of their CDCs was limited due to their organizational size. Like many nonprofits, they could not afford dedicated human resources staff, nor carry the cost of high-capacity accounting and financial management. What if they could pool their resources and by doing so, afford more staff capacity and stronger systems that would manage essential underlying business processes and free the CDCs to focus on supporting their local communities?

That cup of coffee was just the beginning. Many local and national community development leaders provided technical advice and financial support along the way as the OppCo model was developed. These contributions — both technical and financial — were instrumental to our startup and early success. There is no other effort like OppCo nationwide; we are charting a new path forward within the local community development field.

Today, OppCo is a successful joint venture of independent CDC members, codified in an operating agreement. Members leverage OppCo’s operating platform to boost their real estate and program impacts, and to build resilient and sustainable organizations. By sharing knowledge, tools, and resources, we make community development organizations — and the neighborhoods they serve — stronger.