Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are nonprofit organizations that acquire and hold land for the benefit of a community, with the aim of promoting affordable housing, community development, and land stewardship. CLTs operate based on principles of community ownership, democratic governance, and long-term affordability, seeking to address housing affordability challenges, prevent displacement, and build community wealth and resilience.
The purpose of community land trusts is to provide communities with secure and sustainable access to land for housing, agriculture, and other community needs, while preserving affordability and preventing speculative land use. The scope of CLTs varies depending on community needs and priorities but typically includes acquiring and managing land, developing affordable housing, and supporting community-driven initiatives and projects.
Principal Concepts
Community Ownership: CLTs are owned and governed by community members, including residents, stakeholders, and representatives from local organizations, who collectively make decisions about land use, development, and stewardship.
Land Stewardship: CLTs manage land resources in a sustainable and responsible manner, preserving natural ecosystems, promoting environmental sustainability, and enhancing community resilience to climate change and other threats.
Affordability Provisions: CLTs enforce long-term affordability provisions, such as land leases and resale restrictions, to ensure that land and housing remain permanently affordable and accessible to low- and moderate-income households.
Theoretical Foundations of Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts draw on principles from various theoretical perspectives, including:
Commons Theory: CLTs are grounded in commons theory, which emphasizes collective ownership, governance, and management of resources, such as land, water, and forests, for the benefit of communities and future generations.
Social Justice: CLTs align with principles of social justice, equity, and inclusion by promoting access to affordable housing, supporting marginalized communities, and addressing systemic inequities in land ownership and access.
Methods and Techniques for Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts employ a variety of methods and techniques:
Land Acquisition: Acquiring land through purchase, donation, or public acquisition to establish community land trust holdings and expand access to affordable land for housing and other community purposes.
Affordable Housing Development: Developing and rehabilitating affordable housing units on CLT-owned land, using various financing mechanisms, subsidies, and partnerships to make homeownership or rental housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households.
Community Engagement: Engaging community members, stakeholders, and partners in the CLT decision-making process, including land use planning, development projects, and governance structures.
Applications of Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts have diverse applications across communities and regions:
Affordable Housing: CLTs develop and manage affordable housing units, including homeownership opportunities and rental housing, to address housing affordability challenges and stabilize neighborhoods.
Urban Agriculture: CLTs support urban agriculture initiatives, such as community gardens, urban farms, and food forests, by providing access to land for food production, education, and community-building activities.
Community Facilities: CLTs develop and manage community facilities, such as parks, playgrounds, community centers, and commercial spaces, to meet the diverse needs of residents and enhance community well-being.
Industries Influenced by Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts have influenced a wide range of industries and sectors, including:
Real Estate: CLTs introduce alternative models of land ownership and development that prioritize community needs, affordability, and sustainability over market speculation and profit maximization.
Urban Planning: CLTs inform urban planning and development policies by demonstrating the potential of community-led, participatory approaches to land use, housing, and economic development.
Advantages of Community Land Trusts
Affordable Housing: CLTs provide affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income households, offering alternatives to market-driven housing models and addressing affordability challenges in high-cost housing markets.
Community Control: CLTs empower communities to control and manage land resources, housing development, and neighborhood revitalization efforts, fostering self-determination, resilience, and social cohesion.
Stewardship and Sustainability: CLTs promote responsible land stewardship, environmental sustainability, and equitable access to natural resources, contributing to ecological resilience and community well-being.
Challenges and Considerations in Community Land Trusts
Despite its benefits, community land trusts face challenges:
Resource Constraints: CLTs may face resource constraints, including limited funding, staff capacity, and technical expertise, which can affect their ability to acquire land, develop housing, and sustain operations.
Policy and Regulatory Barriers: CLTs may encounter policy and regulatory barriers, such as zoning restrictions, land use regulations, and financing limitations, that impede their ability to acquire and develop land for affordable housing and community purposes.
Integration with Broader Community Development Strategies
To maximize the benefits of community land trusts, they should be integrated with broader community development strategies:
Collaborative Partnerships: Building partnerships and collaborations with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, philanthropic institutions, and community stakeholders to leverage resources, expertise, and support for CLT initiatives.
Policy Advocacy: Engaging in policy advocacy and community organizing efforts to advocate for supportive policies, funding mechanisms, and regulatory reforms that advance the mission and objectives of community land trusts.
Future Directions in Community Land Trusts
As community land trusts continue to evolve, future trends may include:
Scaling Impact: Scaling up CLT models and replicating successful initiatives across communities, regions, and countries to expand access to affordable housing, promote community ownership, and advance social and economic justice.
Innovative Financing: Exploring innovative financing mechanisms, such as community land bonds, impact investing, and social impact bonds, to mobilize capital and resources for CLT acquisition, development, and sustainability.
Conclusion
Community land trusts are a powerful tool for promoting affordable housing, community development, and land stewardship, by providing communities with secure and sustainable access to land for housing, agriculture, and other community needs. By combining community ownership, democratic governance, and long-term affordability provisions, CLTs offer an alternative to market-driven approaches to land and housing, fostering community control, resilience, and equity. As community land trusts continue to gain momentum globally, they hold promise as a transformative force for social and economic change, empowering communities, addressing housing affordability challenges, and building more inclusive and sustainable societies.
In a functional organizational structure, groups and teams are organized based on function. Therefore, this organization follows a top-down structure, where most decision flows from top management to bottom. Thus, the bottom of the organization mostly follows the strategy detailed by the top of the organization.
In a flat organizational structure, there is little to no middle management between employees and executives. Therefore it reduces the space between employees and executives to enable an effective communication flow within the organization, thus being faster and leaner.
Project portfolio management (PPM) is a systematic approach to selecting and managing a collection of projects aligned with organizational objectives. That is a business process of managing multiple projects which can be identified, prioritized, and managed within the organization. PPM helps organizations optimize their investments by allocating resources efficiently across all initiatives.
Harvard Business School professor Dr. John Kotter has been a thought-leader on organizational change, and he developed Kotter’s 8-step change model, which helps business managers deal with organizational change. Kotter created the 8-step model to drive organizational transformation.
The Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model was created by David Nadler and Michael Tushman at Columbia University. The Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model is a diagnostic tool that identifies problem areas within a company. In the context of business, congruence occurs when the goals of different people or interest groups coincide.
McKinsey’s Seven Degrees of Freedom for Growth is a strategy tool. Developed by partners at McKinsey and Company, the tool helps businesses understand which opportunities will contribute to expansion, and therefore it helps to prioritize those initiatives.
Mintzberg’s 5Ps of Strategy is a strategy development model that examines five different perspectives (plan, ploy, pattern, position, perspective) to develop a successful business strategy. A sixth perspective has been developed over the years, called Practice, which was created to help businesses execute their strategies.
The COSO framework is a means of designing, implementing, and evaluating control within an organization. The COSO framework’s five components are control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring activities. As a fraud risk management tool, businesses can design, implement, and evaluate internal control procedures.
The TOWS Matrix is an acronym for Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Strengths. The matrix is a variation on the SWOT Analysis, and it seeks to address criticisms of the SWOT Analysis regarding its inability to show relationships between the various categories.
Lewin’s change management model helps businesses manage the uncertainty and resistance associated with change. Kurt Lewin, one of the first academics to focus his research on group dynamics, developed a three-stage model. He proposed that the behavior of individuals happened as a function of group behavior.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory that transitioned into a for-profit organization in 2019. The corporate structure is organized around two entities: OpenAI, Inc., which is a single-member Delaware LLC controlled by OpenAI non-profit, And OpenAI LP, which is a capped, for-profit organization. The OpenAI LP is governed by the board of OpenAI, Inc (the foundation), which acts as a General Partner. At the same time, Limited Partners comprise employees of the LP, some of the board members, and other investors like Reid Hoffman’s charitable foundation, Khosla Ventures, and Microsoft, the leading investor in the LP.
Airbnb follows a holacracy model, or a sort of flat organizational structure, where teams are organized for projects, to move quickly and iterate fast, thus keeping a lean and flexible approach. Airbnb also moved to a hybrid model where employees can work from anywhere and meet on a quarterly basis to plan ahead, and connect to each other.
The Amazon organizational structure is predominantly hierarchical with elements of function-based structure and geographic divisions. While Amazon started as a lean, flat organization in its early years, it transitioned into a hierarchical organization with its jobs and functions clearly defined as it scaled.
The Coca-Cola Company has a somewhat complex matrix organizational structure with geographic divisions, product divisions, business-type units, and functional groups.
Costco has a matrix organizational structure, which can simply be defined as any structure that combines two or more different types. In this case, a predominant functional structure exists with a more secondary divisional structure.
Costco’s geographic divisions reflect its strong presence in the United States combined with its expanding global presence. There are six divisions in the country alone to reflect its standing as the source of most company revenue.
Compared to competitor Walmart, for example, Costco takes more a decentralized approach to management, decision-making, and autonomy. This allows the company’s stores and divisions to more flexibly respond to local market conditions.
Dell has a functional organizational structure with some degree of decentralization. This means functional departments share information, contribute ideas to the success of the organization and have some degree of decision-making power.
eBay was until recently a multi-divisional (M-form) organization with semi-autonomous units grouped according to the services they provided. Today, eBay has a single division called Marketplace, which includes eBay and its international iterations.
Facebook is characterized by a multi-faceted matrix organizational structure. The company utilizes a flat organizational structure in combination with corporate function-based teams and product-based or geographic divisions. The flat organization structure is organized around the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, and the key executives around him. On the other hand, the function-based teams are based on the main corporate functions (like HR, product management, investor relations, and so on).
Goldman Sachs has a hierarchical structure with a clear chain of command and defined career advancement process. The structure is also underpinned by business-type divisions and function-based groups.
Google (Alphabet) has a cross-functional (team-based) organizational structure known as a matrix structure with some degree of flatness. Over the years, as the company scaled and it became a tech giant, its organizational structure is morphing more into a centralized organization.
IBM has an organizational structure characterized by product-based divisions, enabling its strategy to develop innovative and competitive products in multiple markets. IBM is also characterized by function-based segments that support product development and innovation for each product-based division, which include Global Markets, Integrated Supply Chain, Research, Development, and Intellectual Property.
McDonald’s has a divisional organizational structure where each division – based on geographical location – is assigned operational responsibilities and strategic objectives. The main geographical divisions are the US, internationally operated markets, and international developmental licensed markets. And on the other hand, the hierarchical leadership structure is organized around regional and functional divisions.
McKinsey & Company has a decentralized organizational structure with mostly self-managing offices, committees, and employees. There are also functional groups and geographic divisions with proprietary names.
Microsoft has a product-type divisional organizational structure based on functions and engineering groups. As the company scaled over time it also became more hierarchical, however still keeping its hybrid approach between functions, engineering groups, and management.
Nestlé has a geographical divisional structure with operations segmented into five key regions. For many years, Swiss multinational food and drink company Nestlé had a complex and decentralized matrix organizational structure where its numerous brands and subsidiaries were free to operate autonomously.
Nike has a matrix organizational structure incorporating geographic divisions. Nike’s matrix structure is also present at the regional and sub-regional levels. Managerial responsibility is segmented according to business unit (apparel, footwear, and equipment) and function (human resources, finance, marketing, sales, and operations).
Patagonia has a particular organizational structure, where its founder, Chouinard, disposed of the company’s ownership in the hands of two non-profits. The Patagonia Purpose Trust, holding 100% of the voting stocks, is in charge of defining the company’s strategic direction. And the Holdfast Collective, a non-profit, holds 100% of non-voting stocks, aiming to re-invest the brand’s dividends into environmental causes.
Samsung has a product-type divisional organizational structure where products determine how resources and business operations are categorized. The main resources around which Samsung’s corporate structure is organized are consumer electronics, IT, and device solutions. In addition, Samsung leadership functions are organized around a few career levels grades, based on experience (assistant, professional, senior professional, and principal professional).
Sony has a matrix organizational structure primarily based on function-based groups and product/business divisions. The structure also incorporates geographical divisions. In 2021, Sony announced the overhauling of its organizational structure, changing its name from Sony Corporation to Sony Group Corporation to better identify itself as the headquarters of the Sony group of companies skewing the company toward product divisions.
Starbucks follows a matrix organizational structure with a combination of vertical and horizontal structures. It is characterized by multiple, overlapping chains of command and divisions.
Tesla is characterized by a functional organizational structure with aspects of a hierarchical structure. Tesla does employ functional centers that cover all business activities, including finance, sales, marketing, technology, engineering, design, and the offices of the CEO and chairperson. Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, decide the strategic direction of the company, with international operations given little autonomy.
Toyota has a divisional organizational structure where business operations are centered around the market, product, and geographic groups. Therefore, Toyota organizes its corporate structure around global hierarchies (most strategic decisions come from Japan’s headquarter), product-based divisions (where the organization is broken down, based on each product line), and geographical divisions (according to the geographical areas under management).
Walmart has a hybrid hierarchical-functional organizational structure, otherwise referred to as a matrix structure that combines multiple approaches. On the one hand, Walmart follows a hierarchical structure, where the current CEO Doug McMillon is the only employee without a direct superior, and directives are sent from top-level management. On the other hand, the function-based structure of Walmart is used to categorize employees according to their particular skills and experience.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
