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Major Changes Coming for CDFIs

Requirements to be certified as a community development financial institution (CDFI) will soon change—and some lenders that qualified before might no longer.

CDFIs Shouldn’t Act Like Banks, But Too Often Do

When receiving bank funding, CDFIs often limit their investments in accordance with bank restrictions. How can reforms to the Community Reinvestment Act help center the needs of underserved communities?

CDFIs Led By People of Color Face Financial Disparities Too

A lack of access to capital, capacity-building resources, and technical assistance significantly constrains the ability of CDFIs led by people of color to achieve greater impact.

CDFIs and the Expansion of the Payroll Protection Program

The Payroll Protection Program is an expansion of a program for banks and credit unions. It offers virtually nothing to nonprofit small-business lenders.

How CDFIs are Helping Small Businesses Create Good Jobs

Community development financial institutions lend to micro- and small-business owners, but the jobs those businesses create are often minimum wage, part time, or otherwise low quality. What makes a job a good job, and what are CDFIs doing to help small-business borrowers create good jobs?

CDFIs: A New Force in Homeownership?

It has been a big year for community development financial institutions (CDFIs), the innovative, mission-driven organizations that provide much-needed...

CDCs Are Having a Moment. Can the Momentum Last?

Over the past couple of years, community development corporations have been popping up in sometimes-unexpected places across the country. Will this increased interest in CDCs last, or is it a trend that will end when the money runs out?

Dear CDFI Colleagues: It’s Time to be Transparent About Salaries in...

Companies that value meritocracy perform worse with pay equity when their internal policies do not align with their public-facing statements regarding pay.

Connecting CDFIs and Impact Investors

It should be a natural fit; what’s in the way?

CDFIs: The Boom Sector in the Community Development Field?

Three weeks ago I went to Philadelphia to attend the annual conference of the Opportunity Finance Network, the trade association for CDFIs, or community...

Is Success Making CDFIs Too Risk-Averse?

Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute in conversation with Ed Gorman of NCRC on whether community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are taking enough risk, and therefore, falling short of their mission.

CDFIs “Rethink” Systems, But (Hopefully) Not Identity

We are definitely in some danger of losing a connection to the animating social movements that gave rise to the industry.

CDFIs Speed Up Sandy Recovery

  When disasters strike, our first responders ensure that emergency resources get to those in need.  But...

Back in the Game: CDFIs Help 1- to 4-Unit Rental Housing...

After the housing crash, Chicago’s 1- to 4-unit rentals weren’t bouncing back in many neighborhoods. Three CDFIs came together to make it happen.

Tracing the Roots of CDFIs: A review of Democratizing Finance

This book is a major contribution to increasing knowledge and awareness of how far the community development finance movement has come in 30 years.

A Look in the Mirror: Do CDFIs (and CDCs) Reflect Their...

Last year, I wrote about the teeming conference of the Opportunity Finance Network, the trade group for community development financial institutions, with a little bit of awe at how different it was from the rest of the community development world in its growth and optimism, worrying about mission creep rather than survival. This year the […]

Coalition of Lenders and Investors Help Create the Community Development Financial...

  When more than 500 hundred people met for the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Training Institute in Durham, NC, in late January, 1994, participants...

CDFIs: Bridging the Poverty Gap

Each year, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday prompts people to reflect on Dr. King’s life and legacy. By achieving passage of civil rights and voting rights legislation, the actions of King and others compelled a sharp decline in the blatant discrimination and wanton violence that had permeated the nation for generations. However, today, five […]

CDFIs Stepped Up During the Shutdown

CDFIs across the country were trying to do what they could to ease the effects of the recent government shutdown. Here is just a partial list.

Jason Friedman

Jason Friedman is the CEO of Friedman Associates LLC, a consulting firm for community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Over more than 30 years, Friedman...