CDFI Resource Library
Overview
Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) reports, surveys, and other publications provide valuable data and insight on the community development financial institution (CDFI) industry.
OFN members receive discounts on premium publications and can contact Roland Kamara for more information.
Featured Publications
Trends Toward Equity: Five Years of OFN Member Data
Given changes in the community development financial institution (CDFI) industry and broader economic context, this brief examines CDFI activity, performance, and outcomes among all OFN members from 2017 through 2021. Where appropriate, for additional insights, we restrict the sample to members that have consistently reported data for the last five years.
Opportunity Finance Institutions: Side by Side, FY 2021 24th Edition
Side by Side is an annual reference guide for industry practitioners, investors, and others interested in assessing the activity and performance of the opportunity finance industry. It presents data from 324 CDFIs in the OFN membership and includes peer group analyses for the primary financing sectors.
2021 Inside the Membership: Statistical Highlights from OFN Membership
This fact sheet provides information on as many as 324 CDFIs in the OFN membership, depending on the data point.
The vast majority (303) of these institutions are community development loan funds. The balance are 17 community development credit unions, three community development banks, and one community development venture capital fund.
Our 2021 report can help CDFIs recruit, reward, and retain high-quality employees. It is a comprehensive examination of CDFI loan fund compensation data from nearly 160 CDFIs across the country. For CDFIs that are in expansion mode or in the budgeting process, this report aims to help in setting compensation levels for new positions.
Persistent Poverty and the Prevalence of CDFIs
In new research supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Opportunity Finance Network shows the traditional measure of persistent poverty by county severely undercounts the number of Americans living in entrenched poverty and is less geographically inclusive of rural and urban communities alike.
The paper posits that measuring persistent poverty at a census tract level offers a more equitable and accurate methodology and has profound implications for many CDFIs.
A county measure suggests that nearly half of CDFIs have no lending activity in these areas. A census tract measure shows that the vast majority of CDFIs lend in persistent poverty areas and that nearly 40 percent of all CDFI lending is in these areas, a testament to the CDFI industry’s targeting of highly vulnerable rural and urban communities.
Persistent Poverty and the Prevalence of CDFIs offers:
- Foreword by Partners for Rural Transformation
- Data comparison of persistent poverty when measured by census tract and county, including overview of CDFI lending
- Borrower stories and tracking resources
- Recommendations for CDFIs, policymakers, funders, and investors
Featured Training Resources
Over the last few years, CDFIs have experienced tremendous growth, with many new faces and voices entering the industry. As a result, one of the biggest needs we’ve heard from OFN members is for materials to help educate new staff and stakeholders on what CDFIs are, how they do what they do, why they exist, and what kind of impact the industry has had.
Our CDFI 101 toolkit aims to meet this need by providing a CDFI 101 guide, history of the CDFI industry, impact infographic, reading list, YouTube playlist, a brief glossary of organizations and annual industry events, and more!
We hope this toolkit will help practitioners — new and current — feel better connected to the CDFI industry and the common goals we all share; understand what it means to be a part of the movement built over the past 50 years; and be inspired by the industry’s roots.
More OFN Resources and Publications
To find and download other OFN resources and publications, visit CDFI Connect, a digital space for OFN members, allies, funders, investors and other CDFI industry supporters to network, collaborate, and learn.