CEI is a private, nonprofit Community Development Corporation (CDC) and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) founded in 1977 to develop job-creating natural resources and small business ventures in primarily rural regions of Maine. A pioneer in the CDC/CDFI field, CEI is one of the nation's premiere rural CDC/CDFIs. CEI serves all of Maine, its primary market, and areas of northern New England and upstate New York.

CEI has subsidiaries that enable it to expand its programs and services: CEI Ventures, Inc. and CEI Community Ventures, Inc. are investing $35 million in venture capital in promising job-generating ventures; CEI Staffing Services, Inc. develops full-time, supportive and flexible employment for dependent populations; and CEI Capital Management, LLC manages CEI's $129 million allocation under the New Markets Tax Credit program.

The creation of CEI is rooted in the civil rights movement. With a foundation in natural resource industries, CEI has grown and adapted to changing markets and new possibilities, targeting to sectors such as value-added fisheries, farm, and forest projects; microenterprise development; targeted job creation; the creation of supported, rental and homownership housing; assistance to women business owners; child care facility development; and support for refugees and new immigrants, to achieve social and economic justice within sustainable communities.

CEI embraces a comprehensive approach to building assets, linking development finance to workforce, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and policy and research. The organization operates in primarily rural markets where financial returns are not sufficient to attract traditional investment, but where CEI's goal of achieving economic, social and environmental benefits can be satisfied.

CEI employs a holistic developmental approach to address the complex, interwoven issues inherent in any development effort, whether poverty alleviation, rural development, or environmental sustainability. As a practitioner of sustainable development, CEI demonstrates methods that help individuals and communities, particularly those with low incomes, achieve tangible changes in their work, business or living situations that result in greater personal or community assets. The knowledge, expertise and legitimacy gained from practice translates into policy to raise resources for the CDC/CDFI field and to create an environment in which CEI and its peers can flourish and achieve scale.

Over time, CEI has adopted ways of responding to and creating new markets and opportunities for Maine¹s economic development. We describe these as seven strategic interventions. Implemented within the framework of our values of social justice and sustainability, these interventions have survived the test of time and comprise the essential components of our business model for community-based economic development.

They are:

• Financing
• Technical assistance
• Social targeting
• Economic sectors
• Partnerships
• Policy
• Asset development