Integrity, transparency, independence.

The Center for Economics & Foreign Affairs (CEFA), a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of Delaware and recognized as exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3), at 207 Delaware Ave, Wilmington, DE 19806. Applied America is a division of CEFA, not a separate legal entity: it does not contract in its own name, and any agreement is with CEFA. CEFA’s EIN and its most recent Form 990, which lists its officers and directors, are sent on request to applied@thecefa.org.

Through a development fee for the development work it carries on a project. Each fee is set in that project’s own documents and is recognized as the work is delivered, stage by stage. None of Applied America’s compensation is contingent on the size or the closing of any financing, and none of it buys an interest in a project a sponsor brings. There is no published fee schedule because each fee is agreed project by project.

On the initiatives it develops as its own, Applied America brings the capital and holds the project. On a project a sponsor brings, it takes no ownership interest and no control rights: the project stays the sponsor’s. In both cases the capital it assembles — grants, lenders, investors, foundations, and development-finance institutions — and any commitment of its own are set out, instrument by instrument, in that project’s financing documents. Applied America is not a bank or lender and does not place securities; any offering is made by the project’s issuer under its own documents.

Applied America’s development team at CEFA. Every enquiry made through the intake reaches the team directly, and the reply says who will carry the work. The weekly Economic Development Brief is approved by CEFA’s Economic Development Team before it publishes. The team is not yet listed on this site.

No. The disclosures state it in two named sections: nothing here constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, interest, fund, or instrument, and nothing here is investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Any offer, if one were ever made, would be made only through definitive offering documents to eligible persons.

Not as a separate document, and this page does not pretend otherwise. What is published is the practice stated above — identify, disclose, manage, track — and the disclosures, which set out the limits on Applied America’s role. If a policy document is published, this page will link to it.

That the project is judged on public value and deliverability rather than on who brought it. A partner’s interest in a project is a reason to disclose the relationship, not a reason to advance the project.

Projects are measured against the outcomes they were created to produce, including where they fall short. The disclosures say plainly that no development, financing, permitting, or delivery outcome is guaranteed; reporting against the original purpose is what remains once that is admitted.

Yes — the standard is the same, and only the authority changes. On its own initiatives Applied America decides whether a project advances; on a sponsor’s project it says plainly whether the standard is met and the sponsor decides what to do about it.