Board Members Staff, Trainers and Consultants 2003 - 2005 Funders Community Partners NDC 10-Year Timeline Video

Our Mission

Neighborhood Development Center, Inc. (NDC), a community-based non-profit organization that works in the low-income communities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, surrounding suburbs and Greater Minnesota, helps emerging entrepreneurs develop successful businesses that serve their community, and to help community groups build a stronger neighborhood economy.

Our Philosophy and Values

NDC's programs are designed to help neighborhood entrepreneurs and community groups make highest positive impact on their own communities. NDC assists communities in local job creation, generating local income and wealth, strengthening the local economy, creating community leaders, creating visible and inspiring signs of redevelopment, and creating businesses that will serve as community gathering places.

NDC represents a unique combination of three branches of the community development field. It's a community development corporation, focusing on neighborhood development; it incorporates micro-enterprise development, focusing on creation and support of small businesses started by low-income persons; and it assists with community organizing, focusing on community empowerment and development of "social capital," including positive role models and community gathering places.

With the combined strength of these three branches, NDC can apply the power of "home-grown" entrepreneurial talent to the revitalization of low-income, inner-city and ethnic communities in a process controlled by the community itself. It's a unique community partnership: NDC provides the technical training, financing and ongoing support, and while the entrepreneur supplies the business idea, energy and talent.

Our History

NDC was created in 1993 by Western Initiatives for Neighborhood Development (WIND), a community development corporation that is a subsidiary to St. Paul's Western Bank. Inspired by visits to Chicago's South Shore Bank, former Western Bank Chairman William Sands and Board Member Joseph Errigo sponsored the 1990 establishment of WIND to support local economic revitalization initiatives in core areas of poverty in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

WIND leadership identified a need for services provided directly to residents of these communities, and Western Bank supported the founding of NDC as an independent 501(c)3 organization. Western has provided resources, technical assistance, and ongoing guidance to NDC since its inception.

Since its start in 1993, NDC has grown tremendously. Initially, NDC provided only business training. Then, in 1994, NDC expanded its services to include offering financing. In subsequent years, NDC added ongoing business support (Technical Assistance) services in 1996, business incubation beginning in 1997, and real estate development services starting in 2002. In addition to a high level of growth in the programs it provides, during recent years, NDC has more than doubled its staff, adding new language skills services to support Hmong, Somali, Oromo and Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs, and increasing its capacity to respond to alumni needs.