Leigh Tivol, senior program manager with the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) in Washington, D.C., presented the national perspective on the asset-building movement at the RAISE Texas Action Summit in April.>

What began several years ago as a network of matched savings programs to encourage low-income Texans to save has blossomed into a statewide, comprehensive asset-building movement now known as RAISE Texas.

In 1997 Foundation Communities in Austin, Texas, in partnership with Compass Bank, began offering Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to residents of its affordable, multifamily housing developments. Today, the program has 137 IDA account holders, and participant savings and matched funds...

Louisiana legislators recently approved $2 million in funding for a statewide individual development account program aimed at getting low-income hurricane victims back on their feet.

Low-income residents in New Mexico now have more incentive than ever to save for a home, an education or their own business. In the 2006 legislative session, the state provided $1.5 million to fund the Individual Development Account Act that passed in 2003.