Nextdoor partners with the Opportunity Finance Network to build thriving communities across the U.S.
Nextdoor is lending the Opportunity Finance Network up to $15 million over two years to make affordable loans to fund small businesses, housing, and other eligible community projects.
For Immediate Release: August 25, 2022
Media Contact:
Lisa Chensvold
lchensvold@ofn.org
202.516.8238
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 25, 2022 — Today, Nextdoor (NYSE: KIND), the neighborhood network, announces its partnership with the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the leading national network of community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Nextdoor has entered into a credit agreement to lend OFN up to $15 million over two years. Aligned with Nextdoor’s purpose to create a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood to rely on, OFN will use the investment to make affordable loans to CDFIs to fund small businesses, housing, and other eligible community projects.
Access to capital is a necessary tool for greater social and economic justice. CDFIs are a proven model for creating fairer and more equitable access to capital that helps build thriving communities. Similar to the global network Nextdoor facilitates on its platform, CDFIs across OFN’s network are embedded in local communities.
Nextdoor’s investment will contribute to OFN’s Finance Justice Fund, a socially responsible investment that aims to bring more than $1 billion in capital from corporate and philanthropic partners to people and places underserved by mainstream finance.
“We applaud Nextdoor for its visionary commitment to finance justice. We know that access to low-cost capital can transform communities that have too long suffered from disinvestment,” said Beth Lipson, chief financial officer at OFN. “Our two organizations thrive because they are built on trusted relationships, and this partnership will allow us to work deeply in neighborhoods and communities to create more economic opportunity, reduce the racial wealth gap, and address persistent poverty.”
“We are thrilled to partner with the Opportunity Finance Network as we aim to make a lasting socioeconomic impact in the neighborhoods we serve every day,” says Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar. “This partnership will allow us to contribute directly to revitalizing communities by lending to the small businesses that support individuals and families, make neighborhoods vibrant, and contribute to resilient local economies. At Nextdoor, we know that when local businesses thrive, neighborhoods thrive and providing SMBs the support they need, especially during inflationary periods, is critical to ensuring communities flourish.”
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About Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)
Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is a leading national network of more than 370 community development financial institutions (CDFIs), specialized lenders that provide affordable, responsible financial products and services in low-income rural, urban, and Native communities nationwide. As a trusted intermediary between CDFIs and the public and private sectors, OFN works with its partners – banks, philanthropies, corporations, government agencies and others – to create economic opportunity for all by strengthening and investing in CDFIs. For more information, visit ofn.org.
About Nextdoor
Nextdoor (NYSE: KIND) is where you connect to the neighborhoods that matter to you so you can belong. Kindness is core to our purpose: to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. Neighbors around the world turn to Nextdoor daily to receive trusted information, give and get help, get things done, and build real-world connections with those nearby — neighbors, businesses, and public services.
We believe connecting with others is a universal human need. That truth, and the reality that neighborhoods are among the most important communities in our lives, have been guiding principles for Nextdoor since the beginning.
Today, neighbors rely on Nextdoor in more than 295,000 neighborhoods around the world, including the United States (nearly 1 in 3 U.S. households), the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Canada, with many more to come.
Nextdoor is based in San Francisco. For additional information and images: nextdoor.com/newsroom.