OFN Launches Inaugural Innovation Council and Capital Solutions Accelerator to Catalyze CDFI Industry Solutions

September 18, 2025 – 

OFN recently launched two major programs of our CDFI Innovation Initiative — the Innovation Council and the inaugural CDFI Capital Solutions Accelerator. With support from the MassMutual Foundation and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the CDFI Innovation Initiative advances bold solutions to help CDFIs unlock capital, scale innovation, and navigate a changing economy.

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Announced at OFN40 in fall 2024, the CDFI Innovation Initiative is our long-term model for building and funding replicable solutions to vexing challenges facing the CDFI industry. With support from the MassMutual Foundation and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, through their Mastercard Strive program, the CDFI Innovation Initiative advances bold solutions to help CDFIs unlock capital, scale innovation, and navigate a changing economy.

The CDFI Innovation Initiative is powered by three core program areas: an Innovation Council; an Innovation Center; and Innovation Capital that provides blended capital designed to drive high-potential ideas from concept to scale. Together, these program areas create a powerful platform to design, test, and expand solutions that serve the community development finance industry.

A year later, we’ve marked a key milestone in the CDFI Innovation Initiative with the launch of our inaugural CDFI Innovation Council and first cohort of the CDFI Capital Solutions Accelerator. 

“One truth is clear: Our future will be defined by our willingness to innovate and develop new solutions on our own terms. The CDFI Innovation Initiative is a bold, multi-year commitment to create new tools, develop actionable, replicable models, and solutions to address our field’s most persistent challenges,” said President and CEO Harold Pettigrew. “Over the last two years, CDFIs have faced both historic opportunities and profound challenges. Through it all, our mission has only grown more urgent, more visible, and more viable as a solution to address market failures, which is why we’re inviting new and existing partners to join us in advancing solutions that strengthen CDFIs nationwide.”   

Meet the CDFI Innovation Council

The Council provides strategic insight across four foundational areas: capital solutions, financing products, technology and operational efficiency, and data, research, and analytics. Our inaugural Council includes leaders from finance, philanthropy, and community development: 

• Marcus Berkowitz, Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Grameen America 
• Jonathan Brereton, CEO, Scale Link 
• Sandy Fernandez, VP of Social Impact, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth 
• Bulbul Gupta, President & CEO, Pacific Community Ventures 
• Julie Mahowald, CFO & Head of Partnerships & Strategy, Housing Trust Silicon Valley 
• Liz Roberts, Head of Impact Investing, MassMutual 
• Matt Roth, President & CEO, Community Reinvestment Fund 
• Aaron Seybert, Managing Director of Social Investments, Kresge Foundation 
• Anna Smukowski, Managing Director, Impact Investing, Enterprise Community Loan Fund

Introducing the Capital Solutions Accelerator Projects

The Capital Solutions Accelerator, launched with assistance from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, is the first major program activity under the Innovation Center. It is designed to help unlock new sources and structures of capital, reduce barriers to affordable, flexible long-term funding, and create models that strengthen mission-driven financing.

Our first cohort focuses on reimagining capitalization strategies for small business lenders: 

• Ascendus: A graduation strategy that helps CDFI clients transition to traditional bank credit — spurring bank refinances and accelerating CDFI recapitalization. 
• Impact Ventures: An integrated capital model using equity-like and non-extractive instruments for CDFIs to better serve early-stage, undercapitalized entrepreneurs. 
• JUST Community: A real estate investment platform creating new capitalization opportunities for CDFIs and supporting entrepreneur technical assistance. 
• Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA): A framework to sell CDFI-originated loans to small banks, unlocking liquidity and increasing small business lending. 
• Next Street: A mutual insurance company concept for credit enhancement and risk sharing that can attract more institutional investment into CDFIs. 
• Northern Initiatives: A capital planning and participation model tapping high-net-worth individuals, donor-advised funds, and community foundations to fund small businesses. 
• Prosperity Now: A platform that streamlines data collection to expand CDFI access to secondary markets. 

Looking to the Future

As a cornerstone of OFN’s 2030 strategic framework, the CDFI Innovation Initiative is about building durable solutions for the field: aligning resources with capital, product expansion, policy, talent, and technology. With partner support, we’ll deliver scalable, field-wide solutions that strengthen the financial infrastructure of communities today and well beyond the next five years.

Join Us

We’re inviting CDFIs, partners, funders, and investors to bring capital, expertise, and vision to this national effort. Want to get involved or learn more about the Initiative and the Accelerator? Learn more: https://www.ofn.org/current-initiatives/cdfi-innovation-initiative/

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Tags: CDFI Leadership, Community Development, Impact Investing, OFN