Webinars

OFN’s Public Policy team present timely updates on FY 2020 appropriations for the CDFI Fund; Community Reinvestment Act modernization; New Markets Tax Credit program extension; Housing Finance Reform; and more.

Wells Fargo and OFN provide a summary of the Wells Fargo Works® for Small Business Diverse Community Capital 2018 Social Capital activities and introduce the 2019 Social Capital activities.

Listen to this interactive webinar, where we explored the nexus of community development finance and resilience finance to drive action and impact for our communities. Hear about example projects in US city strategies that look to make cities safer, cleaner, smarter and more inclusive, and find out everything you wanted to know about the resilience movement.

Small business owners need to understand the online landscape to thrive in today’s market, and they look to you for help. But finding the time and resources to develop this type of training is no simple task. That’s why Southeast Kentucky Economic Development Corporation created Be Boss Online — an always current, turn-key curriculum that allows you to help your members increase profits by owning their presence on the internet.

On October 3, 2018, OFN offered a deeper dive into the Office of Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) about proposed changes to the enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). This webinar solicited feedback from participants on CDFI-specific proposals and start to shape our recommendations to the OCC.

On September 13, OFN sought advice from its members on changes proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to how the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is enforced. View additional materials.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and Symbiotics present the first comprehensive analysis of the financial performance of private debt impact investment funds, The Financial Performance of Impact Investing through Private Debt. The study analyzes the financial returns, risk characteristics, and impact metrics of 102 Community Development Loan Funds (through a partnership with OFN) focused on low-income areas in the United States and 50 Private Debt Impact Funds focused on emerging markets. The GIIN and Symbiotics presented key findings from the study and shared a live demo of an interactive online benchmarking tool.

CDFIs have been investing in creative places and businesses for decades as a fundamental part of developing healthy, vibrant, and sustainable communities. Now, investable opportunities in the creative economy total more than $1.5 billion. This type of investment has the potential to stabilize threatened communities and benefit regions looking to attract and develop quality jobs. Listen to this webinar exploring creative places and businesses as part of comprehensive community development.

Please also consider completing this optional survey to help us quantify the capital deployed to creative places and creative businesses in low income communities in America today.

Get the marketing resources you need to connect with your community!

You work hard for the community you serve—from offering classes on how to budget better and manage debt to working with people who need auto, home, and other personal loans to improve their lives. Marketing your services can be a challenge at times.

That’s why the Opportunity Finance Network has created a library of pre-designed marketing materials and guides that are easy for you to customize and use.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has launched the fifth Partnerships for Raising Opportunity in Neighborhoods (PRO Neighborhoods) competition to identify strategic Collaboratives that advance inclusive economic growth. This is part of a $125 million, five-year initiative to identify and support custom solutions for the unique challenges facing disadvantaged neighborhoods in U.S. cities. Listen to the information call to learn more about the program and RFP. Proposals are due by Friday, April 20.

Listen to a discussion about the Sustainability in Affordable Housing Lender Learning Network's Program and Transaction Database, a first-of-its-kind repository of information on CDFI energy and water efficiency lending programs. Developed by the Lender Learning Network, the database provides real-life example transactions from successful energy and water efficiency lending programs. During this webinar, presenters from Community Investment Corporation and the National Housing Trust provide of an overview of the database, suggest how CDFIs can use this resource to integrate efficiency into their lending practices, and invite multifamily housing lenders who are already active in efficiency lending to provide feedback on and contribute to this community-driven resource.

Does your CDFI offer mortgages, payday alternatives, credit builder loans, savings products, and similar consumer products and services? Reaching consumers requires different marketing strategies, messages, and tactics than targeting other kinds of borrowers. OFN and its partners recognize that CDFIs of all kinds can expand their work in the consumer marketplace with new marketing tools and ideas. With the support of the Prudential Foundation, OFN is building a marketing toolkit that CDFIs will be able to use, customize, and adapt to their markets. The toolkit is in development and will launch in January. We are happy to be able to offer a preview in this webinar. Listen to learn more about the toolkit and about how you can get involved in the project by sending and showcasing your own successes.

Presenters from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta discuss the purpose of this annual survey, the types of data it collects and how it informs the work of policymakers, researchers, and service providers. Presenters also discuss how CDFIs can get involved as survey partners. The 2017 survey is currently live (through December 31) and survey partners are wanted to help spread the word.

Listen to a discussion about USDA's Community Facilities Relending Program and how one CDFI has utilized the program to finance a project in their community. Presenters from Coastal Enterprises, Inc., USDA Rural Development and the Central Lincoln County (CLC) YMCA discuss how the Relending Program helped provide a critical piece of financing for the renovation of the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta, ME, a major community center that provides a diverse range of activities, resources and programs for children and families in its service area. The presentation focuses on the timing and process for deploying these funds to the end borrower and helpful suggestions for other CDFIs considering this program.

OFN's CDFI Loan Fund Technology Landscape: User Survey Results report is now available for download. Based on OFN's 2016 survey of 100 CDFI loan funds, the report explores common software solutions used by loan funds—including customized spreadsheets and databases and popular mainstream programs like Excel, QuickBooks, and Salesforce—and provides user feedback on them. As technology has become an essential tool in the support of CDFI operations, CDFIs need to understand the performance factors of these different programs, and CDFI Loan Fund Technology Landscape provides useful insight into different solutions that can help CDFIs exploring new technology options.

How can CDFIs finance innovative economic development efforts that revolutionize opportunity in rural communities? It wasn’t long ago that a group of 10 towns and 17 townships in southwestern Minnesota would have ever dreamed of securing high-speed broadband connectivity. And if they did, they never imagined it could be affordable. Then along came a citizen effort to deliver fiber optic broadband access to homes and farms, businesses and government agencies, and schools and hospitals. The outcome is the RS Fiber Cooperative. RS Fiber provides high speed, fiber optic broadband to the citizens of Renville and Sibley Counties. It is the first operational fiber optic cooperative in the country. Rural Electric Economic Development, Inc., a CDFI serving the area, was instrumental in financing this effort. This webinar illustrates how a CDFI can finance rural broadband infrastructure, how the CRA can facilitate bank financing, and how a group of dedicated citizens can organize to successfully bring their rural communities into the 21st century web of communications.