National Change from the Ground Up
We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan "Do tank" that delivers solutions, connections, and resources to mayors and other local leaders
Economic & Community Development
We help local leaders create more prosperous communities through initiatives to increase housing affordability, invest in thriving small businesses and neighborhoods, expand access to capital, and build career pathways.
see initiatives
Transit & Infrastructure
We work with leaders to generate local infrastructure funding and to leverage the historic federal investment in infrastructure to create wide-reaching economic opportunity and other community.
see initiatives
Workforce Development
We work with local leaders to tackle workforce challenges and create pathways for high-quality jobs – those that provide family-sustaining wages, benefits, and opportunities for economic mobility.
see initiatives
Housing & Innovation
We help communities confront America's housing crisis by identifying and scaling practical solutions — from unlocking underutilized public land and deploying innovative funding strategies, to modernizing zoning and streamlining permitting.
see initiatives
Economic & Community
Development
Transit &
Infrastructure
Housing &
Innovation
Workforce
Development
COMMUNITIES
Our work spans communities large and small, all across the country. Since our founding, we have supported 200 localities with resources or direct technical assistance from our expert staff and committed partners.
Hover over the highlighted cities for examples of our place-based impact.
Tap over the highlighted cities for examples of our place-based impact.
Kansas City
AFA provides technical assistance and capacity building to the Office of Mayor Quinton Lucas and regional partners in securing federal funding to promote equitable workforce, economic development, and infrastructure policy. AFA’s work facilitated a new partnership with USDOT’s Build America Bureau and helped secure the region’s successful EDA Tech Hubs Designation. AFA also assisted with applications to Bloomberg Philanthropies Sustainable Cities and IEDC/EDA’s Economic Recovery Corps programs.
St. Louis
AFA continues our partnership with the St. Louis Development Corporation and the St. Louis Community Foundation to pursue new innovations in housing development and provide support for building new impact investing opportunities.
San Antonio
AFA is partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau on the Leveraging Infrastructure Networks for Equity (LINE) Initiative in San Antonio. Working closely with Ready to Work and city leaders, LINE supports workforce development efforts in San Antonio to prepare more women and people of color for good jobs with federally-funded infrastructure projects, and remove barriers by identifying resources for supportive service needs, such as childcare. By providing additional staff capacity, and connections to best practices, data, and funding opportunities, LINE seeks to advance San Antonio's efforts to connect more residents to high-quality jobs and the training and support needed to succeed in them.
California
AFA seeks to leverage federal funding and catalyze additional investment in high-impact projects and organizations in Riverside and other California cities in ways that address persistent economic disparities and that uplift low-wage workers and vulnerable communities. Drawing lessons from our in-depth engagement in Riverside, we convene partners around tools, solutions, and strategies that can be replicated and scaled in multiple cities in order to strengthen California’s infrastructure, create quality jobs, and foster economic opportunities. We have engaged nearly 20 cities, state agencies, and community based organizations across California and convened hundreds of policy and civic leaders to align local priorities and advance new solutions. With our support, the San Joaquin Housing Authority successfully secured a $1.6 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to support electric vehicle infrastructure and workforce development benefiting more 7,000 households.
Lansing
AFA convened city leaders, economic developers and investors to create Lansing’s Investment Prospectus, which promotes a number of deals that are attractive to investors and that serve community needs. Several are now underway or complete, including two mixed-use projects of $41.5 million and $44 million, which revitalized blighted areas of the city with apartments, a 37,000 square foot urban grocery store and a 122 room Courtyard by Marriott, the first new hotel downtown in more than 30 years.
Philadelphia
AFA supports the City of Philadelphia through direct technical assistance on efforts to explore and define capital needs and opportunities for advancing affordable housing solutions in Philadelphia that drive new generational wealth creation. We enhance local capacity by fostering cross-city learning opportunities with peer communities in our national network; providing access to data analysis tools; and connecting local leaders to new resources, policy ideas, and partners.
Phoenix
AFA’s sister 501(c)(4) organization Accelerator for America Action (AFAA) has supported Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Maricopa County, AZ leaders on two ballot measures for transit and transportation investments – one to protect against the cancellation of a $1 billion, five-mile light rail extension connecting Downtown and South Phoenix and another that will generate $24 billion over 20 years for transportation infrastructure projects across Maricopa County.
Louisville
AFA is partnered with Honeywell on the Smart City Accelerator program that has helped half a dozen cities develop Smart City Strategic Plans and prepare federal grant applications for high priority projects that advance residents’ quality of life by improving climate resiliency, public safety, operational efficiency, and service delivery. Louisville has already secured a $2 million grant from USDOT through this initiative.
Birmingham
AFA was integral in the redevelopment of the blighted, historic American Life Building in downtown Birmingham by supporting Mayor Randall Woodfin in drawing investors into this Opportunity Zone project and building the complicated capital stack to bring it to fruition. It now houses 140 one and two bedroom apartments that bring much needed housing and vibrancy to the neighborhood.
