CDFI Resource Library
Overview
Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) reports, surveys, training resources, and other publications provide valuable data and insight on the community development financial institution (CDFI) industry.
OFN members receive discounts on premium publications. Contact Roland Kamara for more information.
Featured Publications
CDFI Research Update: Sector Trends in OFN Member Loan Fund Lending (2020-2024)
May 2026
This CDFI Research Update follows up last year’s analysis of sector-specific trends in OFN member loan funds. OFN members with different lending sectors experience unique pressures and opportunities, and we analyze their distinct trends in an updated five-year period of 2020-2024. Member loan funds grew, achieved operational stability, and delivered on diverse community outcomes across sectors, even amidst elevated borrower stress. Members can use this piece to understand and communicate sector-level contexts going into 2025, a year of adversity and accomplishments.
Interim Evaluation Report for OFN’s Financing Program: A Benchmark Analysis of Recipient Outcomes from 2020 to 2023
April 2026
To better understand the outcomes of OFN’s financing and engage in continuous improvement, OFN conducted an evaluation of their flagship financing program. 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).
Inside the Membership: Statistical Highlights from OFN Membership, Fiscal Year 2024
March 2026
Inside the Membership is an annual publication that utilizes recently collected member data to convey a high-level statistical overview of OFN’s membership over time. This edition incorporates data from FY 2024.
Opportunity Finance Network: Side by Side Chartbook, 27th Edition
Published: January 2026
Last Updated: February 2026. If you have any questions regarding version changes, please reach out to [email protected]
The Side by Side Chartbook 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 340 CDFIs in the OFN membership and includes peer group analyses for the primary financing sectors.
Insight Briefing on Donor-Advised Funds and CDFIs
December 2025
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) represent one of the most promising pathways to support community development. To better understand this opportunity, OFN partnered with DAFgiving360TM, an independent 501(c)(3) public charity and one of the largest DAF sponsors, to survey DAF donors and advisors in their online community to uncover what donors need to confidently direct philanthropic dollars toward CDFIs.
CDFI Capitalization Patterns: Growth, Shifts, and Gaps among OFN Member Loan Funds (2019–2023)
November 2025
This brief examines capitalization trends in a sample of OFN’s loan fund members from fiscal years 2019 to 2023. This sample contains 158 loan funds — close to a third of the CDFI loan fund industry in this period — covering diverse geographies, sectors, organization sizes, and missions. This five-year period represents the most recent AMS data and captures a period that saw dramatic changes in the borrowing environment, including pandemic-era government support programs, ESG bond issuance, interest rate swings, and new corporate partnerships with CDFIs.
Sector Trends in OFN Member Loan Fund Lending (2019–2023)
November 2025
This brief examines trends for OFN member loan funds based on their largest lending sectors. OFN members across sectors likely experience challenges and macroeconomic conditions differently, and it is vital to examine sector differences to understand existing or emerging trends better. Understanding trends by sector also helps OFN member loan funds identify new opportunities, anticipate risks in their loan portfolios, and adjust product offerings and underwriting criteria in response to changing economic environments.
CDFI Fund Financial Assistance Awards and OFN Member Loan Funds
November 2025
This study focuses on one of the CDFI Fund’s core initiatives — Financial Assistance awards offered through both the CDFI Program and the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program — and how it may affect outcomes for OFN member loan funds.
See the Appendix for greater detail on the data, methods, sensitivity analyses, and related topics.
CDFI Loan Fund Compensation Survey
Data in effect — March 1, 2025
The 2025 CDFI Loan Fund Compensation Survey Report is a valuable resource that can help CDFIs recruit, reward, and retain high-quality employees. The report is a comprehensive examination of CDFI loan fund compensation data from 182 CDFIs across the country. For CDFIs that are in expansion mode or those now budgeting for 2026, this report will be helpful in setting compensation levels for new positions.
The Business Model of CDFI Loan Funds
February 2025
A first-of-its-kind research publication offering a deep dive into CDFI loan funds. The study, based on interviews with 15 CDFI loan fund leaders from 13 states, examines how loan funds operate and create value for their customers. It offers valuable insights to help stakeholders — funders, policymakers, and investors — better understand this essential model for rural, urban, and Native community investment and transformation.
A condensed version of the paper is also available for download. Access the two-pager.
CDFI Survey Findings on Output and Outcome Tracking
April 2024
A brief from the Richmond Fed and OFN looks at several of the Federal Reserve’s 2023 CDFI Survey findings on how and why CDFIs measure outputs and outcomes. It aims to understand what output and outcome metrics CDFIs measure and want to measure, why CDFIs track metrics, and what challenges they face in tracking metrics.
A View of PPP from the Inside: Financing, Financial Performance, and Operations of CDFI Paycheck Protection Program Lenders
December 2023
This brief examines the financing activity, financial performance, and efficiency and operations of Opportunity Finance Network’s member CDFIs that served as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lenders. These members devoted a substantial portion of their fiscal year 2021 lending activity to PPP, had higher self-sufficiency and change in net assets than non-PPP lenders, and achieved high rates of operational efficiency.
Five Research Priorities for Community Development Financial Institutions: Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Evidence-based Practice
November 2023
CDFIs have a shared vision of a more inclusive financial system, but CDFIs and their stakeholders differ on how to best track progress. To foster more alignment, this paper outlines a proposed research agenda — mainly from the perspective of CDFI loan funds — to facilitate a better understanding of how CDFIs contribute to the nation’s financial inclusion ecosystem.
Download the paper:
Trends Toward Equity: Five Years of OFN Member Data
March 2023
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.
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
OFN’s new training resources and tools aim to help CDFI practitioners and partners expand the knowledge and skills they need to achieve the greatest impact in the communities they serve. The toolkits are available for free. To learn more, visit OFN’s training page.
CDFI 101 Orientation
OFN’s CDFI 101 toolkit aims to help practitioners 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.
Talent Recruitment, Retention & Management
This toolkit aims to assist CDFIs with finding the right people, with the right skills, at the right time for the organization; supporting equitable hiring, retention, and advancement practices; providing insights into staffing trends; and offering actionable examples that make it easy to implement the leading practices shared.
Purpose to Practice: Centering Equity in Lending Practices
This toolkit was developed to help CDFIs incorporate an explicit focus on equity, inclusion, and accessibility into their lending practices. You’ll find a guide structured in four sections, each with suggested actions and activities you can undertake individually or as a group.
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.