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.
As an emerging CDFI serving the state of MN with small dollar consumer lending, this funding is essential to us to help combat predatory lending that strips wealth from low-income communities and allows us to provide stabilizing capital to communities to stay housed, employed, and (re)build credit to reach their asset building goals (e.g. car and home ownership) for the future.
The CDFI Fund helps us at Cooperative Federal provide programs for home ownership, small business, consumer credit and financial education for our community, which helps to strengthen the local economy through giving the public access to said services. During a time of high inflation and economic unease, it is more crucial than ever that we continue to be enabled to provide this aid. While I work for Cooperative Federal itself, I have also been a member for several years prior and their free financial education helped me directly to improve my financial situation. Without these programs, people who are already struggling and often cannot afford out of pocket financial education/counseling have nowhere to turn. If we as a country want to achieve greatness, we need to be serving the American people, not stripping them of their ability to raise themselves up!
CDFIs help make our world a better place.
CDFIs fill a real need for underserved and impoverished communities. The need for affordable housing is making living difficult for most Americans. CDFIs responsibly use federal and private funds. In NH, CDFIs are serving both construction and immediate home placement needs.