New Research Evaluates OFN’s Flagship Financing Program
Erick Montenegro, Vice President, Program Evaluation and Impact Measurement and Management, OFN
To better understand the impact of its financing program, OFN has released a new report with interim findings from a multi-phase evaluation—comparing how CDFIs that received funding fared against a benchmark group of OFN members that did not.
Read time: 4 minutes
OFN financing is a core element of the organization’s mission and an essential component of the value we provide to members. To better understand the outcomes of OFN’s financing and engage in continuous improvement, OFN embarked on the first evaluation of this financing program, now in its sixth year.
Because the program is evolving to meet the changing needs of our members and the CDFI industry, the evaluation report refers broadly to “OFN’s Financing Program.” The focus of the evaluation was not on a specific name, but on understanding the program’s enduring mission and assessing how effectively it has achieved its goals.
The evaluation relies on a benchmark analysis comparing the outcomes of CDFIs that received program funding between 2020 and 2023 with those of OFN members that did not receive program funding. The evaluation finds that the program has been a catalyst for growth and positive outcomes among CDFI recipients. The degree of change varies across financial indicators (e.g., financials, lending activity, portfolio performance), downstream outcomes (e.g., jobs and housing), and populations of interest (e.g., low-income/low-wealth borrowers). For example:
- From January 2020 through May 2025, the program awarded $436 million ($383 million in loans and $53 million in grants) to 191 unique CDFIs.
- Program recipients had greater growth in capital available for lending than the benchmark group of OFN members that did not receive program funding, with the 2020 cohort showing the largest increase ($52 million, or 83 percent growth).
- 2020 recipients leveraged financing program funding to secure an additional $74.5 million in investments and funding, raising an average of $3.5 million more in capital, almost doubling the initial $4.17 million award within four years.
Why It Matters
Without this evaluation, understanding of the program is reduced to measures of deployment activity and other outputs that do not fully capture the program’s outcomes among CDFI recipients and end borrowers. Like CDFIs, lending is a critical component of OFN’s strategy, but it is not the mission. OFN aims to drive meaningful change and the evaluation helps us to better understand the types of changes occurring and where there is room for improvement.
Beyond the findings of this report, this evaluation is also part of an effort to develop a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Engaging in rigorous, ongoing, and transparent evaluation efforts allows organizations to understand how effectively programs are meeting their intended targets and why that may be the case.
OFN is charting the path for a more intentional understanding of the value and impact of the CDFI industry, and evaluations such as this contribute to that goal. OFN is committed to deepening its understanding of the financing program through an ongoing qualitative study and quasi-experimental study that will further contextualize the benchmark findings of this report.
Want to Learn More?
OFN will host a webinar on April 28 (2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET) presenting key evaluation findings and a guest panel featuring Megan Teare, Managing Director of Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment group, Emerson Sekins, CEO of Northwest Access Fund, Ethan Penfield, VP and Senior Investment Officer at OFN and Erick Montenegro, VP, Program Evaluation and Impact Measurement and Management at OFN. Register today!
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