The North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center (www.ncjustice.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded and governed by low-income people, nonprofit groups, and legal and community leaders. It is dedicated to helping low-income and working-poor North Carolinians escape poverty and achieve economic security.

Lenders for Community Development (www.l4cd.com/home.htm) is a nonprofit, community development financial institution (funded by 23 member banks, and other government and philanthropic investors) serving Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in California. Its programs help small businesses grow and create jobs, help finance affordable housing and other needed community facilities, and help people develop savings and assets.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (www.nlihc.org) publishes the Advocate's Guide to Housing and Community Development Policy each year to keep advocates current on a wide range of issues, programs, and tools at play in the world of housing policy. It educates, organizes, and advocates to ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Partnerships for Affordable Housing Program (www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/partner_partnero.html) helps providers of housing for low- and moderate-income families make residential dwellings more affordable through improvements in energy use and cost efficiency. It works through voluntary partnerships that bring together leaders from the housing development and financing industry, government, and nonprofit associations at both national and local levels.

The Enterprise Foundation (www.enterprisefoundation.org) and its 1,900 network members work together to provide low-income people with affordable housing, safer streets, and access to jobs and childcare. The foundation consists of nonprofits, community-based organizations, public housing authorities, and Native American tribes from around the country creating powerful partnerships to rebuild communities.

The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (www.cdfifund.gov) provides relatively small infusions of capital to institutions that serve distressed communities and low-income individuals. The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) program uses limited federal resources to invest in and build the capacity of private, for-profit, and nonprofit financial institutions to provide investment capital and financial services to distressed urban and rural communities.

The Low Income Housing Fund (www.lihf.org/track.html) supplies affordable capital and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations working to alleviate poverty in low-income neighborhoods. It is one of the country's largest and most successful CDFIs, and its mission is to promote economic independence for the hardest-to-reach populations.