OFN Finance Justice Fund Reaches Full Deployment of $100 Million Twitter Investment
Caroline Valvardi
In November 2020 during OFN’s annual CDFI industry conference, OFN and Twitter announced the launch of the Finance Justice Fund. OFN is pleased to share we recently deployed Twitter’s full $100 million debt investment and $1 million grant to our member CDFIs serving rural, urban, and Native communities across the country.
Following Twitter’s investment, other corporate and philanthropic partners have also joined as Finance Justice Fund investors to help bring more than $1 billion in long-term, flexible capital to CDFIs to address longstanding disinvestment issues, the racial wealth gap, and persistent poverty nationwide.
Through investments from Finance Justice Fund partners, including Twitter, Wells Fargo, Truist, Focusing Philanthropy, MacArthur Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and PNC, OFN has closed 50 loans totaling $118.9 million and disbursed 47 grants totaling $8.7 million to date.
OFN congratulates the latest Finance Justice Fund recipients:
- Inclusive Action for the City brings people together to build strong, local economies that uplift low-income urban communities through advocacy and transformative economic development initiatives.
- Neighborhood Housing Services of San Antonio develops new units and rehabs existing homes to open and preserve access to quality affordable housing options for local low and moderate-income families.
- Neighborhood Lending Partners is a lending consortium of banking institutions that facilitate private investments for community revitalization and neighborhood preservation. NLP offers flexible financing for affordable housing and community development.
- NeighborWorks Capital delivers the flexible capital NeighborWorks America affiliates need to provide affordable homes and strengthen communities.
- Pathway Lending provides lending solutions and educational services that support the development, growth, and preservation of underserved small businesses, affordable housing, and sustainable communities.
- San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund brings the know-how and financial products that make affordable housing developments work. They offer fast, flexible capital that bridges between other funding sources to make sure every project, no matter how complex, gets across the finish line.
- TMC Community Capital provides affordable loans ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to small businesses, with a focus on those that are women-owned, low-income, and under-resourced.
Visit OFN’s website to see the full list of CDFIs that have received Finance Justice Fund loans and grants to date, as well as stories about people and communities impacted by these funds.
In June 2021, Wells Fargo joined Twitter as a philanthropic supporter of the Fund with a $25 million grant, followed by an announcement of $23 million committed by Truist, Focusing Philanthropy, MacArthur Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. JPMorgan Chase also committed a $20 million debt investment and a $2.4 million grant in 2021.
Other recent Finance Justice Fund commitments include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s $10 million debt investment and $1 million grant and PNC’s $10 million equity equivalent (EQ2) investment and $10 million debt issuance.
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Corporations and philanthropies interested in investing in the Finance Justice Fund, please contact Beth Lipson, CFO at OFN.
CDFIs interested in learning more about the Finance Justice Fund, visit OFN’s Finance Justice Fund page or contact Lisa Wright, senior vice president of financial services.
Photo: Rodriguez-Sanchez family, members of Latino Community Credit Union (Finance Justice Fund recipient) – York, SC