13 Promising Solutions, One Destination: Explore OFN’s Innovation Initiative Resources
Lauryn Reynolds, Associate, Field Building Research, OFN
OFN launches exciting new resources that explore solutions to the challenges CDFIs face. These concise, research-informed summaries spotlight promising ways to strengthen CDFIs’ capital, financial products, technology, and data.
Read time: 4 minutes
CDFIs provide affordable and responsible capital to rural, urban, Native, and other communities that are left out of traditional financing. Through mission-focused lending, CDFIs support small businesses, increase homeownership, help families build credit, and create jobs in an effort to advance economic mobility.
Yet today, CDFIs experience systemic friction that limits the full impact of what they might achieve. These challenges broadly fall into four areas:
- Capital Solutions–CDFIs need new and diverse capital solutions that strengthen their balance sheets and enable mission-driven lending in an era of government retrenchment and challenging economic conditions;
- Financial Products–CDFI borrowers need expanded access to responsible financing products with flexible terms to help them weather economic changes and recover from natural disasters;
- Technology and Operational Efficiency–Many CDFIs require resources and strategies to improve technology that supports operational efficiency; and
- Data Systems and Analytics–CDFIs require updated data, systems, and analytics to tell stakeholders about the full impact of their work and improve day-to-day operations.
OFN is addressing these challenges in partnership with our members, industry stakeholders, and partners. We created the Innovation Initiative to support and amplify solutions that usher in the next wave of community development finance.
The Research Behind the Innovation Initiative
Last year, as part of the Innovation Initiative, OFN conducted an open call for innovations from its members, industry leaders, and adjacent sectors. As a result of the open call, we surfaced 100 solutions, which we narrowed down to 13 on which to conduct additional research. OFN conducted secondary research on each of these solutions to support the work of the Innovation Initiative.
This research grounds the initiative’s work in current leading practices and opportunities that OFN, its members, and CDFI stakeholders can pursue. The research sought to:
- Document the challenges that persist,
- Identify solutions already being tested,
- Surface promising solutions worth piloting, and
- Reveal gaps where new solutions or partnerships are needed.
The solution summaries on the new Innovation Initiative Resources web page are the result of this research. Each solution summary explores how a proposed solution addresses a persistent challenge CDFIs face, identifies successes, assesses implementation challenges, and considers potential replicability. The summaries illuminate what we know about the solutions, what we still need to learn, and help chart a path forward.
OFN will continue to conduct research that grounds the initiative’s work in existing evidence and offers a path for new empirical findings. Likewise, through the Innovation Center, OFN will shepherd solutions from ideation through development and launch for the benefit of our members and the CDFI industry.
Explore the Innovation Initiative Resources
The Innovation Initiative Resources web page is a one-stop destination for the solution summaries and future publications. These summaries are a great starting point for CDFIs, funders, policymakers, and other stakeholders who are looking to understand the basics of a solution area. The solution summaries can be filtered based on solution characteristics (topic area and readiness) and organizational characteristics (applicability to sectors and asset size).
Explore the new Innovation Initiative Resources web page and check back as new solutions move from ideas to impact.
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