The Community Development Fund in Thailand has showed to be a very powerful development tool to address urban poverty and affordable housing at a national scale. The Community Development Fund model supports poor communities in organizing savings groups and improves their capacity to manage their fund or the loans for community development activities. It is a mechanism that enables urban poor organizations to tap into resources directly by building up their own capacities and allows communities to decide and design various development activities. This publication documents the experience of the Community Development Fund through the evolution, operation and management of the Urban Community Development Office and later the Community Organizations Development Institute. It illustrates the practices and performance of the projects funded by the Community Development Fund, through the case studies of the Baan Mankong Upgrading Program and the Ruam Samakee Project.