To find the product solutions you need, click on a category below. Log into your e-store account here.
Publications
Improving Outcomes with Behavioral Economics
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Moderator: Pamela Chan, CFED
Panelists: Matt Darling, ideas42; Catherine Meyrat, InnoStratX - Innovative Strategies for Expansion; Brigid Brannigan, Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners; and Pahniti Tosuksri, Cleveland Housing
Behavioral economics draws from economics and psychology to provide insight into human nature. These insights help us understand why and how people make decisions about their finances. Increasingly, community development and asset building organizations are incorporating research from behavioral economics into their products and services to encourage client behaviors that better match organizational goals. This panel explores what behavioral economics is, why and how organizations are incorporating behavioral insights into their product and service designs, and how to start similar practices in your organization. Specifically, the panel will highlight recent efforts of the Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners to improve account usage and Cleveland Housing Network to improve on-time rent payments. Session participants can offer their organizational challenges for the panel to problem-solve in a demonstration of how to start thinking from a behaviorally informed lens.
Track: Consumer Finance
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Financial Statements Standards and Best Practices
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Presenters: Beth Lipson and Fran Lutz, Opportunity Finance Network; Owen Gray, Novagradac & Company LLP; Bonnie Scadova, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund; and Suzanne Aloi, The Reinvestment Fund
Calling all CDFI CFOs and Accounting Managers to join a discussion about financial statements standards and best practices. Provide input to a newly-formed CDFI Financial Statement Working Group that's working to improve the consistency, clarity, and transparency of non-profit CDFI financial statements. Representatives of the Working Group will discuss the Group's work and lead a discussion of two critically important topics: net assets/grants and portfolio presentation.
Track: Organizational Capacity
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Collaboration as the New Competition
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Presenters: Sara Vernon Sterman, The Reinvestment Fund; Jeannine Jacokes, Partners for the Common Good; Kim Latimer-Nelligan, Low Income Investment Fund; and Shaw Canale, Mountain BizWorks
Competition in the CDFI marketplace is on the rise. With interest rates at a historic low and a renewed emphasis on investing locally, we as an industry are faced with increasing competition on every front from access to capital to project financing. What can we as an industry do to enhance our competitive edge? Across the industry, there are examples of innovation and success as a result of collaboration. Is collaboration the new competition? This panel discussion explores three recent examples of CDFI collaboration, each focused on harnessing partners’ strengths and resources to amplify outcomes. Panelists from The Reinvestment Fund and LIIF talk about their collaborative efforts in community health center financing. Partners for the Common Good discuss the CapNexus platform, which connects mission-driven capital to borrowers.Mountain BizWorks will discuss the creation of Appalachian Community Capital, a new capital intermediary established to address capital needs of the Appalachian region.
Track: Collaborations
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Beyond Housing in TOD Vision
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Issue Date: 2013-10-18
Moderator: Robin Hacke, Living Cities
Panelists: Jessica Standiford, Low Income Investment Fund; Mike LaFave, Neighborhood Development Center; and Mary Tingerthal, Minnesota Housing Finance Agency
Funders, policy makers, and developers have placed tremendous emphasis in recent years on mixed use transit oriented development (TOD) as a powerful tool for creating healthy, livable communities. While there is often a deliberate focus on the affordability mix of the housing in such projects, the commercial component of these projects is all too often less intentional. Moderated by Robin Hacke of Living Cities, this panel will highlight recent examples of mixed-use, TOD projects which have had a deliberate focus on economic development. The panel will discuss what “equitable" economic development means in the context of TOD, what it takes to make the economic development component a reality, how it interfaces with the housing component of the same project, and how CDFIs can play a meaningful role. Panelists include Mike LaFave of the Neighborhood Development Center, a CDFI that has completed several such projects; Jessica Standiford of LIIF, who recently completed a national study of mixed use projects; and Mary Tingerthal, a national leader in housing finance policy.
Track: Coverage
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Character Can’t Tell the Story: Mitigating Risk in a Changed Lending Environment
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Moderator: Terry Burks, Equifax
Panelists: Michael Stefanick, Equifax and Bonnie Bowling, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs
In lending days of old, you could rely on the three C’s for mitigating risk: character, collateral, and cash. In today’s lending environment, relying on character can get you into trouble – you need to focus on the facts. This session will provide insights into a major credit agency’s recent analysis of the current market landscape for microenterprises, including risk and growth trends; outline critical factors for identifying and managing risk in your microenterprise loan portfolio; and show you how leveraging a new automated underwriting system can drive efficiency in your loan origination processes. You’ll hear from a CDFI microlender who's adopted the technology and achieved significant loan growth as a result.
Track: Organizational Capacity
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Fast and Furious
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Moderator: Debby Stefaniak, Opportunity Finance Network
Panelists: Stefanie Arck, Opportunity Finance Network; Nick Burstein, Opportunity Finance Network; Demetric Duckett, TruFund; Andrew Schultz, Garfield Group; Sherry Simmons, Northern CA Community Loan Fund; Allison Starkey, Wells Fargo; Steve Varnum, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
TED gives presenters 18 minutes to make their case—our marketing and communications experts only need eight! See eight communications professionals present eight tools or best practices in this engaging and fast paced session. Topics include: Social Media in Five Minutes a Day; Crisis Communications Readiness; Responsive Web Design; Tell Me a Story!; Be Bold with your Marketing; Designs That Scale; How to be an Effective Co-Brand Partner
Track: Strategic Communications
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
CDFI Bond Guarantee Program: Application Basics
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Presenter: Cathy Dolan, Opportunity Finance Network
The CDFI Bond Guarantee Program is live and Guarantee Authority will be available in fiscal year 2014. If you are interested in applying or want to learn more to decide whether to apply, this session is for you. You’ll learn all the basics: what the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program offers, how your organization can benefit, program eligibility requirements, and what to consider in putting together an application. Don’t miss out! Get informed today.
Track: Financial Resources
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Are You Ready… For Some Funding?!
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Presenters: Kristi Bias, Lisa Wagner and Sarah Sanders, Oweesta
This training provides participants with the essentials to prepare for successful investor conversations. Learn how to be responsive to your organization's funding needs by utilizing sources other than Federal programs. Acquire practical tips on preparing a funder’s packet. This session will shorten your learning curve, help you avoid pitfalls, and accelerate your process of building relationships with investors.
Track: Native CDFIs
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Learnings from Scaling Up Microfinance: Customer Acquisition and Market Research
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
This is one of three Microenterprise sessions that will share out the work of the Scaling Up Microfinance participants. Part of the CDFI Fund’s Capacity Building Initiative, Scaling Up Microfinance includes six mentored Working Groups that are exploring creative ways to: develop new products, conduct effective market research, conduct outreach to potential clients, improve collections, underwrite quickly and effectively, and collaborate with partners. The six Working Groups are just getting underway this summer. In September we will review their findings and update this description with the specific elements of their work that will be covered in this session.
Cost:
FREE
FREE
Food Deserts 2.0: Tools and Resources
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Issue Date: 2013-10-17
Presenters: Caroline Harries, John Weidman and Julia Koprak, The Food Trust; Gary Williams, Hope Enterprise Corporation; and Sajan Philip, Low Income Investment Fund
Over the last few years, many CDFIs have begun to utilize city, state, federal, and philanthropic dollars to fund healthy food retail projects. Terms such as ""food desert"" and ""underserved"" have become commonplace, yet clear definitions can be elusive and vary by state and program. Other challenges include building a robust pipeline of applicants and marketing the program effectively, as well as attracting additional investment to support projects. This session will be relevant to any CDFI that is working to increase access to healthy food, and is designed as a follow-up to the training sessions and technical assistance that were offered through the “Financing Healthy Food” Capacity Building series sponsored by OFN and the CDFI Fund. Attendees will walk away with: a clearer understanding of available data sources to determine eligibility, more confidence about how to prioritize projects in areas of need, building a pipeline of applicants, outreach strategies for the grocery industry, ideas to attract additional investment, and other best practices in healthy food financing. A recently released Healthy Food Financing Handbook will also be distributed.
Track: Healthy Foods
Level: General
Cost:
FREE
FREE