Templates · Community land trusts

Land held in trust. Governed by community.

Community land trusts preserve affordable housing and prevent displacement. EnDAO provides the democratic governance and financial transparency CLTs need — resident voting, transparent finances, and an audit trail that satisfies funders without the overhead.

Quick answer

EnDAO provides the governance and treasury layer for community land trusts — resident voting on budgets and bylaws, board-approved spending with multi-signer controls, and a transparent financial record funders and community members can audit any time. The tripartite-board structure CLTs are built on — resident representatives, community representatives, public-interest directors — maps directly to configurable approval roles. EnDAO is not a homeownership-tracking system; it is the democratic decision layer the CLT runs its board on.

What this looks like

A page from one CLT's board ledger.

Midtown Community Land Trust · 9-member board

Q1 2026
Jan 12Foundation grant received · housing preservation fund+$120,000.00
Feb 06Maintenance contract · 14 units annual service−$38,400.00
Feb 20Resident vote · new resale formula proposal$0.00
Mar 08Property acquisition deposit · Elm Street parcel−$25,000.00

The governance gap

Common CLT challenges, and what democratic infrastructure solves.

Community land trusts are built on democratic principles: residents and community members govern collectively. But most CLTs run on tools designed for traditional nonprofits — board meetings, paper ballots, opaque finances. The tools don't match the mission, and participation suffers for it.

What goes wrong

  • Low participation in governance decisions when voting is slow and hard to access
  • Financial records are hard for members to see without special requests
  • Board decisions feel disconnected from residents when the process isn't visible
  • Succession planning collapses when leadership turns over and records live in email
  • Demonstrating accountability to funders requires manual report preparation

What EnDAO does

  • Digital voting accessible to all members from any device — no meeting required
  • Transparent treasury visible to the whole community in real time
  • Proposals connect decisions to spending — every vote has a context and an outcome
  • Structure persists beyond any individual board member — records are the institution
  • Complete audit trail for grants and donors builds automatically, no manual preparation

What’s built in

The things every community land trust needs, already there.

Resident governance

Members vote on budgets, policies, and major decisions. True democratic participation, not just advisory input. Every vote closed with tally and rationale on the permanent record.

Protected finances

Multiple approvals required from the board before spending. No single person controls the funds. Routine operations and major decisions can have different thresholds.

Transparent records

Every transaction, every vote, every decision documented and accessible to members. The audit trail builds itself — no quarterly report to prepare.

Configurable rules

Set approval thresholds for different decision types: routine maintenance vs. major policy changes vs. property acquisitions. Match the thresholds in your bylaws exactly.

Works for

All kinds of community land trusts.

  • Affordable housing CLTs
  • Urban community gardens
  • Commercial CLTs
  • Agricultural land preservation trusts
  • Resident-governed co-op land trusts
  • Multi-use community space trusts
  • Neighborhood acquisition trusts

Common questions

Questions CLT boards ask first.

Does this replace our 501(c)(3) structure?
No. EnDAO provides governance and treasury tools that work alongside your existing nonprofit structure. Your legal entity remains separate; EnDAO is the layer that makes your democratic process legible and your finances transparent.
Can we use this for grant-funded projects?
Yes. The transparent audit trail makes it easy to demonstrate how grant funds were allocated and spent. Many funders appreciate this level of accountability — and it eliminates the manual reporting burden.
How do residents participate in governance?
Members sign in with email and can vote on proposals, review finances, and participate in discussions from any device. No technical expertise required. Many CLTs find participation increases when voting is this accessible.
Can we have different voting rules for different decisions?
Yes. Routine maintenance might need a simple majority. Bylaw changes might require a supermajority. Property acquisitions might need board consensus plus resident ratification. You configure the rules to match your governance model.
What happens when board members cycle off?
Incoming board members inherit the full decision and spending history — every vote, every approval, every rationale from the beginning. There's no handover binder to assemble and no institutional memory that walks out the door.
How is this different from HomeKeeper?
HomeKeeper, built by Grounded Solutions Network, is purpose-built for tracking CLT homeownership programs — ground leases, resale-formula calculations, mortgage compliance, and homeowner onboarding. It is licensed at roughly $3,500 setup plus $2,750 annually for small CLTs (per Grounded Solutions published pricing) and is well-loved for the ground-lease workflow. EnDAO is the governance and treasury layer for the CLT's board: tripartite-board votes, capital campaign approvals, grant fund tracking, and the audit trail funders ask for. The two tools serve different parts of a CLT's operations and work alongside each other — many CLTs already use HomeKeeper for homeownership tracking and want EnDAO for the board governance and capital-campaign treasury.
How does this support the tripartite board (residents, community, public-interest)?
The three classes are configured as distinct roles on the ledger — resident reps, community reps, public-interest directors — with class-specific approval rules where your bylaws require them. Class composition is visible to all members; resident-only decisions, community-class decisions, and full-board decisions each route to the right approver set automatically.
Can we generate the reports our funders and Grounded Solutions Network ask for?
Grant disbursements, programmatic spending, board approvals, and resident-vote outcomes are all queryable on the ledger and exportable. Most CLT-funder reporting questions ("how was the housing preservation grant spent," "what did the board approve in Q3," "what did residents vote on") answer themselves from the ledger view rather than requiring quarterly manual reconciliation.

Related templates

EnDAO also runs…

Ready to set up a community land trust?

EnDAO isn't open to the public yet. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment we open access for groups like yours.

Or browse other templates
Community Land Trusts | EnDAO