ABOUT US

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the German chemical company BASF ran an ad campaign with the slogan, "At BASF, we don't make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better." The AKLF works in the same fashion. We help connect the community of resource with grassroot leaders and initiatives that are most proximate to the pain of our city so to produce better outcomes. We develop leadership and capacity in people and organizations in an effort to engage those entities in meaningful service to the city. Thus, while we do provide some direct services, we are more process oriented than program focused. "We don't make a lot of initiatives, we identify and invest in the leaders who will."

Identify. We identify leaders of good will from every corner of the city whose initiatives are closest to the needs and opportunities of our communities.

Invest. We invest our intellectual, financial, and social capital into leaders so to mitigate the risk of further investment and remove barriers to long-term organic change in communities.

Integrate. We use bridging capital to integrate these leaders into the fabric of Akron's rich social network, leading to a more diverse, economically viable, just Akron ecosystem.