Center for Social Development > Asset Building
Overview
Asset building refers to strategies that increase financial and tangible assets, such as savings, a home, and businesses of all kinds. Asset-building policy focuses on long-term development of individuals, families, and communities.
 
CSD informs inclusive asset-building policy by designing, implementing, and researching large-scale demonstrations of asset-building policy strategies. The American Dream Demonstration tested Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and the SEED National Initiative and SEED for Oklahoma Kids project test Child Development Accounts (CDAs).
 
CSD also informs inclusive asset-building policy at the state level through research and capacity-building work in the US via its State Assets Policy program. In its work on Native Assets, CSD has established a Native-led asset-building research agenda in collaboration with the Kathryn M. Buder Center of American Indian Studies.
 
CSD has expanded its assets research and policy agenda beyond the US in its work on international development. CSD initiated the Global Assets Project and is part of YouthSave, a longitudinal investigation of Youth Savings Accounts.
 
The Global Assets Project (GAP), a joint initiative with the New America Foundation to study and inform asset-building policy abroad