The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) envisions thriving, diverse, equitable communities, working to build local power and fight corporate control. Over the past 50 years, ILSR has taken on corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart while leading the charge against utility and waste monopolies, with research, advocacy, and community assistance that breaks new ground for advancing vibrant, sustainable, and just cities and towns. The seeds of ILSR were sown in 1974 by three D.C. neighbors with a shared vision of local resilience, inspired by their community’s newly won rights of self-determination. As co-founder David Morris recalls, “We wanted a framework of local self-reliance that could be applied throughout all the sectors of the economy, broadly, but then we also wanted to get down and dirty.”
Why It Matters: ILSR names the central tension in community development—local power versus corporate control—and has spent 50 years building the research, advocacy, and practical assistance that communities need to win against concentrated economic power. By applying a framework of local self-reliance across all economic sectors while also getting “down and dirty” with practical implementation, ILSR bridges vision and action in ways that create real change in cities and towns. The organization’s willingness to take on corporate giants and monopolies demonstrates that thriving, equitable communities require not just building alternatives but actively fighting the consolidation that undermines local economies and self-determination.
