The OFN 2010 Conference
San Francisco, California
The 2010 Annual Conference—Capital. Justice. If Not Now, When?—was designed during a financial crisis that has made CDFIs more important than ever, and which gives us a unique opportunity now to make a leap forward in fulfilling our core purpose of aligning capital with justice.
As glimmers of economic recovery encourage CDFIs to once again think about growth, the Stabilization and Growth core curriculum took on a new significance. Now in its second year, this core curriculum reminded CDFIs to continue to strengthen internally even as they seek opportunities to expand. Breakout sessions covered a wide range of growth and stabilization topics, as well as many other topics relevant to the future of the industry.
At the 2010 Conference, OFN offered exceptional training by CDFI practitioners and subject experts, bringing funders and investors together with CDFIs, delivering thought-provoking analysis and ideas for the future of opportunity finance, and providing rich networking opportunities for more than 900 CDFI practitioners, funders, investors, and other industry experts—making this our best-attended Conference to date!
Conference Highlights:
Our 26th annual Conference opening plenary examined OFN’s Strategic Plan for 2011–2025. This strategy is the culmination of a year-long process that included the active engagement of hundreds of CDFIs, funders, investors, policy makers, and others invested in the industry’s future. Attendees were invited and encouraged to submit input to help us finalize this plan for how OFN will lead the opportunity finance industry forward over the next 15 years.
Mark Pinsky, OFN President & CEO, delivered his annual state of the industry speech “If Not Now, When?” In it, Mark focused on the state of CDFIs in light of the increased money in the CDFI Fund, The Capital Magnet Fund, the recently enacted Small Business Jobs Act, the Jobs Act, and other initiatives that point to the health and growth of importance of the industry, such as the First Lady’s Healthy Foods Initiative.
Citi, the Calvert Foundation, and OFN announced great news—that the $200 million Communities at Work Fund™ has already approved $60 million in financing to CDFIs to help fuel small business lending in low-wealth and low-income U.S. communities.
The fourth annual Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance once again recognized the great successes of the best and the brightest CDFIs. The awards program recognized the six 2010 awardees and ended with wonderful news from Wells Fargo, announcing their support of the NEXT Awards for another five years!
Donna Gambrell, Director of the CDFI Fund, spoke at lunch on Thursday about the state of CDFIs and the expanding programs within the CDFI Fund.
Sister Corinne Florek of the Mercy Partnership Fund received the fourth annual Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending and gave a powerful speech highlighting the important role of religious women as the CDFI industry’s first investors.
The fifth annual Native CDFI Awards honored accomplishments of one Native CDFI and a Native CDFI leader. This year's winner of the Circle of Honor Award was Four Directions Development Corporation, a Native CDFI serving members of the four tribes in Maine. Anna Knight, director of the Cherokee Nation Small Business Assistance Center in Oklahoma, was selected to receive this year’s Visionary Leader Award.
A new CDFI-to-CDFI Exchange, or “C2C,” allowed CDFIs to connect with each other to buy and sell products and services. CDFIs offering or looking for everything from loan participations to back office services to training materials met at C2C to do business with each other.
OFN and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative announced the 10,000 Small Businesses CDFI Small Business Financing Initiative. This initiative will expand the small business lending capacity of CDFIs by strengthening individual CDFIs’ capacity to lend to small businesses and by widely disseminating knowledge and resources to the broader field. Goldman Sachs will fund these efforts with a grant to OFN of $1 million over three years.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the 2011 OFN Conference, November 14–17, in Minneapolis, MN, at the Hilton Minneapolis.
