To be an OFN Member, consistent with our Membership Principles a CDFI must:
Mission & Impact
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Have a primary mission of community development and strive to have a positive impact on low income, low-wealth and other disadvantaged people and communities. If the organization is part of or controlled by another corporation(s), that corporation also has a primary mission of community development.
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Serve primarily low-income, low-wealth, or other disadvantaged people or communities.
Finance-led Strategy
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Have an active lending and/or investing history of two or more years.
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Be a non-governmental entity.
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Be primarily a financing institution that provides affordable, responsible financial products and may also provide financial services.
Commitment to Performance
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Pro-actively manage the risks in its portfolio and have appropriate loan and risk management policies and procedures in place to manage effectively the risks of its financing activities.
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Have positive net assets (equity) and, for nonprofit loan funds, positive unrestricted net assets.
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Have at least one completed financial audit. (For credit unions without audited financials, NCUA 5300 reports are acceptable.)
Support for Opportunity Finance Network’s Mission
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Affirm their support for OFN’s mission of leading CDFIs and their partners to ensure that low-income, low-wealth and other disadvantaged people and communities have access to affordable, responsible financial products and services.
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Participate in OFN’s required Member data collection initiatives and make a good faith effort to actively participate in OFN peer learning activities.
To determine if a CDFI satisfies the Membership Principles, OFN follows a two-tiered process. First, we determine if the CDFI meets our Eligibility Criteria. If a CDFI meets all of the Eligibility Criteria, we further assess the degree to which the CDFI meets a set of Performance Expectations. A CDFI is required to meet all of the Eligibility Criteria, but is not required to meet all of the Performance Expectations to be approved for and maintain Membership.
