Latest Industry Developments

CARS™ Updates and Improvements
This year, CARS™ plans to double our activity--releasing ratings for 20 CDFIs, including re-ratings for six organizations. And during the fourth quarter, we will begin analyses on an additional six CDFIs that will be released in early 2009. We have already released ratings and analyses for Vermont Community Loan Fund, Century Housing, and Low Income Investment Fund. The rating of Low Income Investment Fund marks another milestone reached for CARS™ as it was our first re-rating of a CDFI! Take a look at the growing list of Rated CDFIs.

Congressional Handbooks Arriving Soon
Check your mailboxes! OFN recently distributed the 2008 version of the U.S. Congress Handbook, containing contact information, committee listings, and district maps for Senators and Representatives to our Members. This useful tool will provide the information you need to leverage your organization’s advocacy efforts both in Washington and at home.

Strategic Communications Seeks Graphic Designer
OFN Strategic Communications seeks a graphic designer with minimum three years work experience in both print and interactive. Responsibilities include: conceptualize, design, and produce a variety of printed publications, brochures, postcard mailers, Web graphics, and other materials. Must be proficient in Adobe Creative Suite. Portfolio samples are a prerequisite. See job description.

Join us and our co-hosts Chicago CLF & IFF for the 2008 Opportunity Finance Network Midwest Regional Meeting on June 3rd in Chicago. Email Jacqueline Fox to register.

OFN Members, please join us for a Staying Connected call on May 28th from 1 - 2pm EDT with Mini Datta of OFN and Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy of Oweesta to learn more about the Native theme of the 2008 OFN Conference and how it relates to all OFN Members. Click here to register.

The External Relations team at Opportunity Finance Network seeks to hire a Senior Associate. The primary responsibilities for this position are: proposal writing, funder and investor report writing; donor and investor tracking, and prospect research. The position will be based in our headquarters in Philadelphia. For additional information, please see the job description.

Opportunity Finance Network announced the availability of financing for manufactured housing communities in the form of unsecured loans or participation loans with member CDFIs. We have already approved $200,000 financing to the Cooperative Fund of New England in 2008. Download the term sheet. Please contact Howard Banker at hbanker@opportunityfinance.net or 215.320.4302 for further information.

The NEXT American Opportunity Advisory Board Meets
In early April, OFN hosted a meeting of the Advisory Board for “The NEXT American Opportunity: Good Policies for a Great America,” our forthcoming book setting out an ambitions policy agenda and linking opportunity finance to housing, small business, the environment, asset-building and preservation, federal funding innovations, rural America, and the nonprofit sector. The Advisory Board reviewed policy recommendations proposed in the book’s papers, and developed top recommendations for each chapter as well as overall policy recommendations to advance opportunity finance. The book will be published in July, and will also be available for download as individual chapters and papers.

FREE Downloads a Hit
Have you test driven the FREE downloads in the OFN Store? We are hearing rave reviews about how easy it is to get a free PDF. And there are lots of options to choose from. Simply click on the "Click to download now" link. Depending on your browser's settings, you may see a dialogue box asking where you would like to save the file; otherwise the PDF will open in your browser automatically and you can save it from there. Give it a spin.

CDFI Loan-Fund Loan Management Software Report
OFN has published an analysis of software based on user feedback from an online survey. Feedback was provided on DownHome (7 users), GMS (5 users), LoanBase (4 users), Nortridge (7 users), Pearl (4 users), Portfol (6 users), Tailored Excel and Access Programs (12 users), The Exceptional Assistant (TEA; 13 users), and The Mortgage Office (8 users). We plan to update the report annually. You may download the current and the following version of the report for FREE if you take the survey now for our next analysis. The report is currently featured in OFN’s store.

The report links into a Staying Connected Call on June 18. We will open the lines for Members to discuss loan-management software with a focus on TEA, DownHome, and Nortridge.

Please contact Bryony Edwards if you have any questions.

Valecia Brooks is leading an effort to enlist support from non-bank, corporations for Opportunity Finance Network. She has met with corporations in Georgia, Florida, and Pennsylvania and has plans to travel to NJ, NY, and CA among other states. The new corporate focus grew out of meetings that Mark Pinsky has had with the US Chamber of Commerce over the last couple of years. The US Chamber of Commerce is planning a Conference on Community Development Finance to promote the concept with its members.

Opportunity Finance Network has already approved $2.0 million in financing to 6 CDFIs in 2008 that finance affordable housing, community facilities, and small businesses in low-income communities throughout the U.S. We've also closed 10 loans this year for a total $13.5 million (including 2 loans totaling $7.5 million for the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance).

If you are interested in learning about accessing capital from Opportunity Finance Network’s Financing Fund, please contact Prudence Lee at plee@opportunityfinance.net or 215.320.4305.

OFN Responds to Federal Reserve
Amidst the turmoil in the housing and credit markets, The Federal Reserve System recently released a proposal for new rules to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis. OFN submitted a comment letter that urged the Fed to introduce even stronger regulations to help protect borrowers from loan abuses.

Wachovia NEXT Awards News Coverage
We recently announced that the applications for the Wachovia NEXT Awards were open from April 1 through May 30. Global Banking News, The Community Investment Network, and the Charlotte Business Journal ran with the story in early April. We can’t wait to make more headlines – with announcements of the semi-finalists and the awardees later this year. Want to get in on the action? Don’t forget to submit your application at www.nextawards.org.

The Native Communities Financing Initiative (NCFI) provided a training course in March for Native communities interested in starting credit unions. Five organizations from Maine to Hawaii participated in the three and a half day session and have moved even closer to a starting a Native credit union in their community. This training and TA program is fully supported by the CDFI Fund.

Opportunity Finance Network would like to thank the following donors for their generous support:

• Bank of America Charitable Foundation for its Platinum level sponsorship for the 2008 Conference.
• Wachovia, JPMorganChase, Citi and Capital One for their Gold level sponsorship for the 2008 Conference.
• PNC Bank for its Community Leader level support for the 2008 Conference.
• The Ford Foundation for its support of OFN’s policy campaign, “The Next American Opportunity: Good Policies for a Great America.”