This week in Fast Company, CDFIs stood out as a path forward for a resurging trend in worker-owned small businesses, or cooperative businesses.

Small business financing is tough, and if you’re a cooperative, it can seem especially unattainable. Finding the right solution for financing a co-op is different every time, and often depends on a variety of factors, such as industry, size, co-op type, and transaction type.

More than 300 CDFI and mission-driven small business lenders, and their partners, will converge in Chicago June 8 and 9 to learn and network at the 5th annual OFN Small Business Finance Forum. This year, the U.S.