Chuck Matthei

Who was Chuck Matthei?

Chuck Matthei, an activist with roots in the Catholic Worker movement and the peace movement, helped found the community land trust and community loan fund movements. He served as Executive Director of the Institute for Community Economics, then based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Later, he founded Equity Trust.

Beginning as a teenager active in the Civil Rights movement, Chuck developed an approach to poverty and inequality that linked activism, economics and property issues as a political message. His work has influenced several movements, including community economic development, efforts to preserve family-run farmlands, the community loan fund network that ultimately became the basis of the Community Development Financial Institutions, and permanent affordability housing policies in Vermont, Massachusetts and several other states.

As Founder and Director of Equity Trust, Inc., Chuck provided leadership and support to various domestic and international projects. In particular, he focused on alternative models of land tenure and economic development. Equity Trust has provided technical and financial assistance to projects in the US, Central America and Kenya. Examples include: helping the last Gullah/Geechee community on Sapelo Island, Georgia acquire and protect land on their island in order to support their community and culture; acquiring 140 acres of land in the Hudson Valley to be preserved as agricultural land and used by Roxbury Farm to provide food to its community supported agriculture members; assisting students at Williams College to persuade the school to create a community investment program as part of its endowment; and a series of conferences and publications on "Property and Values: Striking an Equitable Balance of Public and Private Interests", undertaken in cooperation with the American Bar Association's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. Chuck consulted extensively with community groups, religious organizations, governmental bodies, universities, financial institutions, and foundations on topics including socially responsible investment, land stewardship, affordable housing and other economic issues.