CBAs that ABC: Using Community Benefit Agreements to Actually Benefit Communities

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law – Community Benefits Agreements Database: This landing page provides a list of publicly available CBAs by project and project type. Provided are the project description, benefits provided, and date signed, as well as direct links to the full CBA. The page also includes a guide on the best practices for CBAs.
Community Benefits Resources - Resource Platform: The platform offers a collection of resources to support organizers and stakeholders working for community benefits and equitable development. It includes a Guide to Community Benefits Agreements, concrete examples of existing CBAs, an interactive map and searchable database of successful community benefits campaigns, and a library of documents on how to organize for community benefits.
Partnership for Working Families - Common Challenges in Negotiating Community Benefits Agreements and How to Avoid them: This guide includes case studies, checklists, charts, and resources for individuals and organizations interested in moving community benefits campaigns forward in their jurisdiction.
Mountain Association for Community Economic Development – Community Benefits Agreements: A Potential Negotiating Tool for Rural Communities: This paper specifically discusses CBAs in the context of rural developments, providing CBA basics, inputs for a successful CBA, and a few examples of CBAs in rural areas. It is also embedded in the ReImagine Appalachia webpage on Community Benefit Agreements. This page is a repository of continuously updated community benefits materials, which would be a great resource in general.
PowerSwitch Action – Community Benefits Agreements: This policy toolkit provides general information on why CBAs work, a framework for successful CBAs, and a page of previous/current CBAs and the commitments that developers made.
The Alliance – Recommendations for the Wireless Minneapolis Community Benefits Agreement: Created by the Digital Inclusion Coalition, this document provides recommendations on what the community considers important in the potential creation of a CBA negotiated by the City of Minneapolis and the Wireless Minneapolis project.
Clean Air Taskforce – Community Benefits Agreements: Case Studies, Federal Guidelines, and Best Practices: This paper details case studies of 9 different CBAs, highlighting the negative and positive impacts of CBAs, and identifying what best practices to use to avoid common CBA pitfalls.
Clean Air Taskforce – Community Benefits: A Survey of Perspectives from Three Communities: This report details the results of a survey conducted on 3 communities regarding their familiarity, opinions, and thoughts about what should be included/considered for community benefits agreements. May be useful as a template for how to conduct assessments of community needs prior to development of a CBA.
Data for Progress – Community Benefits Agreements Offer Meaningful Opportunities to Include Voters’ Voices in Development: This report is based on a survey conducted by Data for Progress, surveying 1268 likely voters to get their opinions on CBAs. Their data shows that these voters overwhelmingly support CBAs (especially when considered in the context of their communities), and flagged that labor benefits, community funding, and services were at the top of their priority list for CBAs. Some of these “priorities” differ based on the community asked (ex. black voters flagged community services, while non-college-educated voters flagged labor), which hints that community benefit agreements are best suited to identifying the specific needs of their communities.