Publications

Using quantitative and qualitative research, CDFI Futures: An Industry at a Crossroads explores these questions and more, discussing this inflection point for community investment and its future challenges and opportunities. The groundbreaking research was motivated by a view among many practitioners and investors that the CDFI industry is at a critical time of change.

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have sometimes worked with one another to fulfill their primary mission of providing affordable, responsible capital, credit, and financial services to low-income, low-wealth, and other underserved people and communities. In recent years, the number and types of CDFI collaborations have increased markedly. Developing and sustaining a CDFI collaboration requires a substantial commitment among all of the partners involved and some collaboration efforts never truly get off the ground. Particularly at the state and regional level, there are CDFIs that are interested in collaborating with their peers but struggle to make it happen. Why are some CDFI collaboration initiatives successful while others are not? This paper seeks to answer this and related questions by studying 12 emerging, ongoing, and completed CDFI collaborations across the industry.

Download a printable 8.5"x11" Infographic of the 17th Edition of Side by Side.

CDFIs foster social and economic progress—all the while offering investors one of the safest investments in the financial community. Based on Opportunity Finance Network Member data, this study shows that OFN Member CDFIs demonstrated strong community impact and performance consistently throughout the 20-year period, even during the Great Recession.

The 17th Edition of Side by Side highlights essential peer groups and key statistics of the over 200 Opportunity Finance Network Member institutions with data from FY 2014. This reference guide - FREE to OFN Members and Allies - is essential for practitioners, investors, funders, and others who assess the activity and performance of the opportunity finance industry. It is also a valuable tool for CDFIs and can help to plan and better understand their organization’s performance relative to their peers. OFN Members and Allies, please contact Jacki Fox at jfox@ofn.org for the purchase code.

This report provides information on 226 CDFIs in the OFN membership. The vast majority (200) of these institutions are community development loan funds with the balance being 23 community development credit unions, two community development banks, and a single community development venture capital fund.

Performance Counts is an industry-led collaborative effort to develop industry standards and best practices around financial statements and financial management, and serve as an industry forum for sharing information, documents, and ideas on these topics. The initiative includes a Working Group that develops financial statement standards, guidance, and best practices by CDFIs for CDFIs.

This paper is the third in a series addressing specific financial statement and financial management topics, with the goal of encouraging agreement and ultimate adoption of recommendations on how best to present CDFI financial information in a clear, standard, and transparent way.

New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business and OFN collaborated to design and implement an innovative talent development program, titled the Opportunity Finance Program, for undergraduate business students who are interested in learning about careers in the opportunity finance industry. This paper discuss the program structure and lessons learned.

The 16th Edition of Side by Side highlights essential peer groups and key statistics of the over 200 Opportunity Finance Network Member institutions with data from FY 2013. This reference guide - FREE to OFN Members and Allies - is essential for practitioners, investors, funders, and others who assess the activity and performance of the opportunity finance industry. It is also a valuable tool for CDFIs and can help to plan and better understand their organization’s performance relative to their peers. OFN Members and Allies, please contact Jacki Fox at jfox@ofn.org for the purchase code.

Infographic of the 16th Edition of Side by Side