Webinars

OFN collaborated with the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) to present an overview of consumer challenges and the underserved marketplace.

A robust risk management approach is essential for organizations that want to sustain growth. So what does that look like and what are some of the potential pitfalls? This webinar will offer insights for organizations that want to build an underwriting approach on a firm risk management foundation that takes into account issues of scale, efficiency, technology and team. The presenters will offer key learnings about how to balance growth and risk within your micro enterprise lending program.

New market challenges, increased competition, demand for diversified products, more selective customers … today’s reality makes it more imperative than ever to reach and retain the customers your organization needs to grow.  Learn how to identify and reach your most important customers using marketing tactics that work. Tune in for a demonstration of how LinkedIn can be leveraged for customer acquisition.

Strong microloan portfolios don't just happen, they are built over time with care, attention and a strong culture of loan repayment. This webinar will explore the psychology of collections from a mission-focused perspective that helps practitioners build portfolio management approaches using techniques that go to the heart of strong, effective community development finance. This webinar will be valuable to practitioners with any role in a microenterprise loan fund - including executive directors, customer service staff, loan officers, underwriters and collectors.

For CDFIs moving into the world of healthy food financing, measuring and improving public health impacts can be a daunting addition to an already long list of social and economic impact goals. In this webinar, we learn how CDFIs can effectively talk about and work toward public health outcomes, better measure public health metrics among other social and economic impact goals, and engage public health professionals and community partners in their work.

Energy is one of the highest costs for grocers, particularly in rural areas. Learn how CDFIs can provide loans to improve energy efficiency among food retail outlets and increase access to healthy foods for underserved areas. MACED and Natural Capital Investment Fund discuss their own experiences in providing energy efficiency loans to rural grocers.

This webinar provides critical information about underwriting supermarket and other grocery retail borrowers and projects for financing.

Local grocery stores are a critical anchor institution sustaining America’s rural communities. This webinar highlights Kansas State University's Rural Grocery Initiative and its research to better understand the challenges and needs of these small businesses. Learn how one CDFI, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., is working to provide financing to rural grocery stores to improve access to healthy foods.

High-quality, full-service supermarkets improve the health and economic well-being of communities. However, supermarket operators face significant obstacles entering and operating in many low-income, urban communities. This webinar, developed by UpLift Solutions, explains the “Grocery Gap” and the financial and operational strategies that can enable supermarkets to be successful.

Today's natural food cooperatives are a thriving part of the natural food retail landscape. This webinar offers a basic overview of natural foods retailing, with specific emphasis on consumer-owned natural foods cooperatives. Learn about the unique aspects of underwriting cooperatively-owned enterprises, review typical financial performance measures for natural foods cooperatives, and explore a brief case study of a recent project.

This webinar highlights the critical elements to underwriting food producers, focusing on small and emerging farms, which are often difficult to analyze and need customized loan structuring. Discussion includes seasonality, cash flow analysis and collateral, and includes “live” farming examples.

Learn about designing a healthy food financing program and measuring its impact. In particular, the presentation outlines important elements to consider when creating a program, including the eligibility process, application process, and product development. Additionally, understand how to define impact as it relates to healthy food financing and how to develop impact tracking tools. The webinar also explores when data related to impact measurement should be gathered, what metrics are a "want to have" versus a "need to have," and how data can assist CDFIs in improving their own performance.