2009 Opportunity Finance Network Conference in Charlotte, NC

The 2009 Opportunity Finance Network Conference

Charlotte, North Carolina

The 2009 Annual Conference—OFN's 25th—came at a time when CDFIs across the spectrum faced severe liquidity, portfolio, and operating challenges. Many also faced skyrocketing demand. At the same time, highly promising developments—CDFIs' access to economic stimulus funds, an increased CDFI Fund appropriation, and Federal Home Loan Bank membership for CDFIs, to name a few—provided CDFIs with big new opportunities.

The 2009 Conference curriculum was aimed at helping CDFIs navigate this "best of times, worst of times" scenario. A Stabilization and Growth core curriculum offered more than 30 sessions on portfolio and risk management, capitalization and funding, and operations and strategy. The core curriculum was designed to ensure that the CDFI industry emerges stronger at the end of the current crisis than it was at the start, and that the CDFI industry, the private financial sector, and government all work together effectively toward a common purpose.

At the 2009 Conference, we continued to build on our quarter-century tradition of being the place for unsurpassed networking, vital market insights, and professional development in the opportunity finance industry. The Conference achieved a record attendance of more than 750 CDFI practitioners, funders, investors, and other industry experts.

Conference Highlights:

We marked 25 years of the OFN Conference with an opening plenary that brought the past alive and looked toward the future. Pioneers who helped build the CDFI industry spoke about the early years and the industry's evolution. Up and coming industry leaders lent their voice to a discussion of the industry's future. Finally, Newsweek's Dan Gross led a discussion on financial system reform and changes in the financial services industry today.
Breakout sessions taught primarily by experienced practitioners provided participants with hard skills in managing delinquency, dealing with workouts, raising funds from individuals, using new online technologies for fundraising and other purposes, increasing operating efficiencies, and more. Access the PowerPoint presentations and handouts for each session.
Mark Pinsky, OFN President & CEO, delivered his annual state of the industry speech "The New Normal."
The third annual Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance once again shone a bright light on the great successes of our. We recognized the six 2009 awardees at an evening awards presentation and celebration complete with a traditional Carolina barbecue and a local Blue Grass band.
Martin Eakes, CEO and founder of Self-Help, was the recipient of the third annual Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending. Named for the late Federal Reserve Board Governor Edward (Ned) Gramlich, the award honors a lifetime of achievement in responsible financial services.
The fourth annual Native Awards honored accomplishments of one Native CDFI and a Native CDFI leader. This year's winner of the Circle of Honor award was Cook Inlet Lending Center, a certified Native CDFI located Anchorage, Alaska. Kristi Coker, Executive Director of Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation received the 2009 Visionary Leader award.
At the Annual Membership Meeting, OFN invited Members and non-Members alike to provide input into our next strategic planning process. Inspired by Jim Collins' Good to Great concepts, the strategic plan will become OFN's roadmap for our next phase of growth. Meeting participants helped OFN explore its new priorities and goals in this time of great change.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the 2010 OFN Conference, November 2nd – 5th, 2010 in San Francisco, CA, at the Hyatt San Francisco in Embarcadero Center.