Making the Case for Your Local Development District

To serve the public well, LDDs must be able to tell the story of their local impact. This three-hour case-based course introduces LDD leaders to a framework that helps them communicate their net “good”–or public value–to the constituents and local decisionmakers who fund them. The framework presented here, developed by Mark Moore of Harvard Kennedy School, offers a useful model for understanding, measuring, and communicating the value an LDD brings to a region. Cases included in the course demonstrate how leaders of four local development districts–each facing important new challenges–improved and advocated for their public value.

The course will help LDD managers:

• Identify and analyze risks and opportunities in their LDD’s current situation.
• Plan a feasible path to increasing the value of the services they deliver.
• Develop metrics to help them monitor, evaluate, and improve performance.
• Demonstrate their impacts to those who fund and authorize them.