Can You Fight Poverty by Paying Kids to Go to School?

In Spain, Higueruela transformed wind farm revenues into municipal investments—funding schools, transportation, senior care, and local jobs—which stabilized the town's declining population and created a sustainable economic model that now provides 40% of its annual budget. A key success factor includes allowing the community to negotiate and reject projects that don't serve local interests.

Bulk-purchase "group-buy" programs for heat pumps have achieved 15-30% cost savings for participants, and on Gabriola Island, over 1,000 units have been installed, making carbon-free heating and cooling more accessible.

The Connecticut Green Bank's Solar MAP+ program acts as a "public developer" that bundles, finances, and directly develops solar projects for schools and municipalities that private developers avoid. To date, they've installed nearly 54 megawatts of solar, programmed to save $57 million in energy costs.

Circular Cleveland is a project run by the city and a nonprofit to help Cleveland develop a circular economy. Through community ambassadors, grants, and consultants the program is helping innovators and companies make circular switches.

In Lithuania, building owners looking to retrofit to improve energy use, reduce heating costs, and lower carbon emissions, can make use of a lending approach that pairs grants and loans. The grants are intended to offset the expense of the loan and can act as a first-loss guarantee for investors.

The 2012 federal JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) took some time to gain traction, but in recent years it has democratized the financing of worker-owned co-ops and other community-based entities that ordinarily would be frozen out of capital markets. By making possible what is called a direct public offering, the law has made it easier to finance businesses that promise greater social benefits than just profit maximization, by opening investment opportunities to a more diverse and egalitarian mix of investors.

The Homestead Community Land Trust offers affordable home ownership in Seattle and the rest of King County, Washington, ensuring that there is always permanently affordable homes available. This opens up homeowner opportunities for those who have historically been excluded and serves as a stem in the tide of gentrification. This article includes personal testimony from people who live in the housing, and already the program has reduced buyers' costs by 30%.

Economic mobility becomes far more attainable when children grow up in a "high-opportunity" area as opposed to a "low-opportunity" area: housing within the city with access to transportation and amenities, higher-performing schools, and lower crime rates. An enhanced voucher program through the Charlotte Housing Authority offers families housing vouchers to move into high-opportunity areas. They also offer incentives to landlords who accept the vouchers, such as up to $1,000 to repair damage beyond normal wear and tear. The program is still new, and it will take generations to see its affects.

The startup Neighborly is making municipal bonds feel relevant. Rather than investing in a “muni” bond indirectly through a retirement fund, individuals can now directly purchase these bonds and target the money to areas they feel passionate about, whether that is building bike lanes in Vermont or investing in schools in Massachusetts. Neighborly is building renewed interest in the municipal bond market while generating more funding for important infrastructure projects.

One in three children in Peru are stunted by a lack of nutritious foods in their diet. In 2005, the government gave cash hand-outs to poor mothers, but only on the condition that they had regular health check-ups and their children went to school. By 2014 the number of children growing up too small had halved.