Thank you to our partners at Inclusive and CDBA for sharing data on CDFI Bank and CDFI Credit Union branch locations. In addition, about 100 of our CDFI Stories come from OFN’s story database.
I’m a contract CFO for multiple smaller CDFIs around the US who are supporting those in our communities that are starting small businesses, trying to get financing to buy a vehicle to get to a job or earn a living in the gig economy, and small developers bringing affordable housing onto the market. No one else is making this financing available. I work to see thriving communities here in the US that make our local economies vibrant and healthy. The CDFI Fund makes that possible.
The nonprofit community depends upon the work of CDFIs to help with investing in communities that are most in need. Whether that be affordable housing, community facilities, community health centers, and economic development, CDFIs can provide the capital that otherwise would not support such critical projects. Particularly important are the investments that CDFIs contribute to rural communities, and other under-invested areas, such as Appalachia. For decades, CDFIs in some of the most economically distressed regions of the country have been addressing the employment and housing, banking and infrastructure needs of local people and places. From the development of entrepreneurs who create jobs to the expansion of safe affordable housing; from increased access to financial services to more readily accessible drinking water and public infrastructure; CDFIs leverage the power of finance to import capital into communities and regions that otherwise suffer from disinvestment. Through these actions, CDFIs strengthen local economies, generate wealth that sticks, and foster agency and power among local people to determine their own destiny.
CDFI funds are frequently the only source of funding and lending available to small, scaled community-oriented development in Minneapolis. Without access to those opportunities companies like mine would not be able to accomplish our development goals and create mid-scale projects related to the arts and market rate affordable housing.
CDFIs are an important to give access to those who can’t get access to capital from traditional banks and provides important Technical assistance to borrowers pre and post loan as needed.