Blog

Category: Voices

Foggy California Northern Valley landscape at sunset. VOICES Beyond Land Acknowledgement: How CDFIs Can Support Land Justice Catherine Howard, President of Community Vision; Rebecca Tortes, Director of the California Tribal Fund; Camille Clinton, Senior Content Developer at Community Vision Community Vision’s Reparative Land Fee Program partners with Indigenous communities to redistribute power and address the wounds of colonialism and systemic racism. Read time: 8 minutes In 2021, the California-based CDFI Community Vision launched a Reparative Land Fee Program directs financial resources to Indigenous communities and offers a step towards healing the historical and ongoing theft of life, land, and culture.

Beyond Land Acknowledgement: How CDFIs Can Support Land Justice

Isom IGA owner Gwen Christon in front of the community grocery store located in Kentucky

Five Ways OFN Members Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

Electric vehicles (EV) Pilot partners pose in front of the Nissan LEAF EV while it's plugged into the V2G charger.

Climate Lending Is Embedded in CDFI’s Mission: Q&A with BlueHub Capital

Jonathan Porter, a client of Northwest Access Fund, which is a CDFI that assisted CCLF in integrating "Accessibility" into its DEI strategy, on a plenary at the 2023 OFN conference.

DEI+A: Chicago CDFI Adds Accessibility to its DEI Strategy

Canners sort bottles and cans for NFF client Sure We Can

From Energy to Equity, NFF Recommits to Climate Justice

Ambrosia Johnson, Youth Services Coordinator for MESO’s Future Leaders Youth Program for youth and young adult entrepreneurs, represents the organization during a Good in the Hood community event parade in Portland.

Portland CDFI Adapts Small Business Services to Hybrid World

A woman (Wendy Green Daniels) standing before Beechwood Residential building located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LIIF Changes Its Lending Game so Racial Equity Wins

Three women smiling for a selfie on a bright day in Oakland, California. From left to right: PCV Associate Director of Finance, Somer Williams Lee wears sunglasses and a Black Lives Matter mask, in the middle is Black Cultural Zone CEO, Carolyn Johnson wearing blue sunglasses and round beaded earrings, and PCV CEO, Bulbul Gupta wears a black mask with a BLM fist.

Getting Real About Racial Equity in Lending

February 28, 2024

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a CDFI headquartered in New York City, provided Why Not Prosper a $250,000 working capital loan through NFF’s zero-interest CARE Fund to fund the salary of a full-time development director and seed a capital campaign for a retreat center for formerly incarcerated women. Pictured here are NFF staff and Why Not Prosper program participants. Read more about NFF in OFN’s Operationalizing Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (REIA) into Lending Practices toolkit.

From Purpose to Practice: Advancing Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Lending

February 14, 2024