While the State of Minnesota has a legal definition, we are particularly fond of the way the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) describes a Community Development Corporation (or CDC):

What is Community Development?

Community development is a process through which community stakeholders come together to vision, plan, and implement a more prosperous future.

What is a community development corporation?

Known as CDCs, these nonprofit, community-based organizations aggregate resources, ideas, and actors with the shared goal of improving the future of a place to the benefit of the people who live there. They are most commonly located in low-income, under-served neighborhoods that have experienced a significant lack of investment. Traditional activities include real estate development, business and economic development, and community organizing.