Spotlight on NDC: Driving Community-Centered Economic Opportunity

NDC models the transformative power of entrepreneurship in neighborhoods working to overcome historical barriers.

“Empowering people is woven into all our programs. We advise business owners, but at the end of the day, they make the decisions,” says Elisa Pluhar, chief innovation and strategy officer at Neighborhood Development Center (NDC).

Based in St. Paul, NDC has worked for more than 30 years to fulfill its mission to empower low-income, historically underserved, and BIPOC entrepreneurs to transform their communities from within. NDC supports entrepreneurs all the way from startup through expansion with training, lending, technical assistance, and business incubators.

“Many services and supports we provide focus on empowerment and network building,” Pluhar reflects. “We all get by in the world because we know people. That’s self-determination: creating your own future for yourself and your family in your community.”

Amplifying the talents, energy, and ideas within underresourced communities fuels revitalization.

NDC’s efforts address Minnesota’s sharp racial disparities in income, homeownership, and poverty rates. NDC has a proven track record of creating local jobs and increasing incomes for neighborhoods across the Twin Cities that are left behind by the mainstream economic system. The vast majority (86%) of entrepreneurs benefiting from NDC’s programs are people of color.

The entrepreneurs who access NDC’s programs are able to build generational wealth. They also enhance their neighborhoods by creating greater civic engagement, increasing dollars circulating in local economies, and growing a larger tax base, which also adds to the funding available for schools and other local services.

The mission and approach of NDC, our longtime grantee partner, dovetail with our grantmaking framework, which aims to invest in changemaking organizations that help build fair economies—particularly through opportunities that allow individuals to thrive on their own terms.

Locally led economic development delivers results with a powerful ripple effect.

“Economic empowerment is our only way out of many issues,” says Pluhar, who’s been with NDC for 10 years. “For example, we’re not addressing mental illness or the racial gap in healthcare, but contributing to economic equity will improve both.”

NDC’s efforts to support entrepreneurs help transform neighborhoods from within. According to a recent evaluation the Wilder Foundation conducted for NDC, businesses that received NDC support have impressive impact:

Upcoming NDC initiatives build on its 32 years of experience and learning.

“We’re really doubling down on wealth-building opportunities to truly have an impact across generations,” says Pluhar. “To do that, we work deeply with partners in the community that understand the needs on the ground. Through those partnerships, we deliver services in trusted, strategic, and intentional ways.”

Midtown Global Market, a Minneapolis retail space that opened in 2006 in a renovated former Sears warehouse, has been a flagship effort for NDC. Now home to more than 40 small businesses, the multi-ethnic themed public marketplace hosts more than 1.5 million visitors each year.

In 2026 NDC plans to break ground on The Ruckus (Where Ideas Make Noise), a new building —just a few blocks from George Floyd Square—that will expand NDC’s capacity to offer industry-specific support. One floor will be dedicated to support tech entrepreneurs and small-business owners, another will be tailored to those breaking into the health and beauty sector.

Beyond that, Pluhar says, “NDC is asking where we see a lot of entrepreneurship and small-business ownership going next, and which industries offer greater wealth-building opportunities” so NDC can continue to support entrepreneurs as they keep transforming their communities well into the future.