New Sun Rising (NSR) designs and implements programs that create economic opportunity, solve social challenges, and strengthen the vibrancy of place. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, they serve as an educator, resource provider, connector, and activator of neighborhood-scale innovation. Their focus is on underserved communities and how regenerative growth strategies can be utilized for equitable development.
New Sun Rising’s framework for co-powering grassroots change was born in the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. After witnessing the disruption of social and economic ecosystems in Pittsburgh and New Orleans, the organization’s founders began to question what the nature of these neighborhoods would become. An immediate response took the shape of practical capacity building and fiscal sponsorship services for grassroots leaders and their efforts to rebuild. The outcome of these early projects created networks of hope and an undeniable shift in neighborhood perception.
Further research demonstrated a lack of support for emerging entrepreneurs in underserved neighborhoods, especially when compared to the Silicon Valley-inspired high growth tech industry. Skewing investments heavily towards extractive socioeconomic ventures has resulted in unbalanced and inequitable opportunity in local ecosystems. And, when positive shifts in local identity and livability occur, neighborhoods often become the target of large-scale outside investment, resulting in the negative impacts of gentrification and displacement.
Building upon practical lessons learned while supporting hundreds of community projects and businesses since 2005, the NSR Vibrant Communities framework emerged as a practical solution to activate real change through local ownership. This toolkit is adaptive and implemented through local partners to instigate regenerative development: built from the bottom up and from the inside out.
The framework creates competitive advantages for communities and entrepreneurs who are facing barriers to success in the current socioeconomic system. New Sun Rising provides administrative support, incubates businesses and nonprofit projects, and accelerates proven social ventures. Their philosophy is that the economic, social, and intellectual opportunities of revitalization should be owned by local stakeholders.
New Sun Rising believes that transformational community change requires a commitment to grassroots, socially minded leaders. By unlocking authentic human potential, they're building engaged, diverse, and cooperative ecosystems with solutions that improve your community. And that can improve communities around the world.
