13 June 2011

I'll be attending the National Federation of Community Development Credit Union's ("the Federation") annual conference this week in Atlanta. This is a gathering of some of the most creative and passionate community development finance professionals in the country - all dedicated to delivering responsible, affordable financial products to help low-income, low-wealth communities join the economic mainstream.

Cliff Rosenthal, the founder and former president of the Federation, recently joined the Consumer Financial Protection Protection Bureau, as the Assistant Director of the Office of Financial Empowerment. Cliff's new position highlights the importance of affordable and fair consumer finance in the national dialogue. At the conference, we will celebrate his tireless work at the helm of the the Federation.

While the conference focuses on creating fair financial products for low-income consumers, it also has a workshop thread devoted to the importance of storytelling in fund development and social media. If you're not able to attend the conference, the Federation posts its workshop presentations on its website after the conference concludes. Make a note in your calendar to check them out next week and I'll post a few links here when they're available.

08 December 2011

OK, so the anticipated early release of the 2012 CDFI funding round did not materialize! But if you haven't already heard, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released the FY 2012 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) and now the race is on. The deadline for applications is January 11, 2012 at midnight (EST).

The FY 2012 NOFA includes funding for CORE and SECA Financial Awards, CORE and SECA Technical Assistance and Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Awards. The $123 million available funds includes $25 million for HFFI Financial Awards.

If you've never applied for a CDFI award, it is a complex application that requires a lot of time and strategy to produce a competitive application. Happily there is plenty of information online to assist you in the process. For application and instruction information, please visit the CDFI Fund's web site at www.cdfifund.gov/cdfiprogram. Credit unions and related loan funds can also access detailed information through the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. The Federation offers expert technical assistance through CU Breakthrough Consulting Services (full disclosure - I am currently working as a CDFI consultant for the Federation). For more information about the Federation, please visit www.natfed.org.

I'll leave you with one tip I've learned over the years: Plan to upload your complete application package early as the grants.gov site can be slow or even crash close to the deadline and you will be out of luck if you miss the deadline, even for reasons beyond your control. Happy writing!

09 August 2011

Chime Nonprofit Communications (CNC) often works with low-income designated community development credit unions that are also certified (or emerging) CDFIs (community development financial institutions). CDFIs are best known for creating effective opportunities for financial empowerment for the diverse, low income communities they serve - they are more commonly known as nonprofit loan funds or credit unions. CDFIs offer affordable mortgage, consumer, and microenterprise lending, as well as development services including financial education and free tax assistance. They have an impressive impact in their communities, which is why the CDFI Fund (Department of Treasury) supports their work.

The Department of Treasury's CDFI Fund publishes a Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) each fall and announces awardees approximately nine months later. While the grant application is demanding, competitive, and extremely time consuming, the pay off is big! This year the largest awards were $1.5 million. In past years, the largest awards were as high as $2 million!

In July, the CDFI Fund announced $142.3 million in financial awards to certified CDFIs serving economically distressed communities nationwide. One of CNC's clients, Fairfax County Federal Credit Union, won a $1.5 million grant to provide affordable mortgages to its hard-hit, low income community. CNC has submitted $4.25 million in successful CDFI proposals in the past several years and will be preparing CDFI applications again for the upcoming 2012 round.

The new CDFI NOFA is expected to be released as early as the end of August 2011. If you are interested in applying or becoming certified, please don't hesitate to contact me and start preparing your application now. You can also follow the links below for more information about the CDFI Fund and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the national organization that provides CDFI certification and application expertise to community development credit unions nationwide.

• CDFI Fund announces 2011 awardees
• CDFI Fund general information
• National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions web site

16 June 2011

I am in Hollywood, CA attending the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions annual conference. This is always an inspiring conference and a chance to catch up with all the community development work occurring in underbanked communities. In preparation for the upcoming round Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) NOFA (as early as August), I will be involved with the CDFI Track of the conference. I am co-presenting on the Thursday, June 16 workshop (at 2pm) CDFI Track workshop, "Program Overview, Certification & Application: What You Need to Know." Contact me if you have any questions about the CDFI application process. I have one comment about the CDFI application before I leave for Hollywood: Get started now!