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The bright lights: CDFIs in the spotlight

November 16, 2011
Mark Pinsky, President & CEO Opportunity Finance Network


Editor's note: Community Development Financial Institutions [CDFIs] are doing essential work filling gaps in the financial services industry and transforming communities in the process - but many people have never even heard of them. Recently, Citi Community Development sat down with Opportunity Finance Network and NACEDA to discuss the role and importance of financial services institutions and CDFIs in delivering responsible, affordable lending to help low-income and other disadvantaged people and communities join the economic mainstream.

I remember vividly when, in 1994, on the verge of the creation of the Treasury Department's CDFI Fund, the Executive Director of a community development financial institution (CDFI) said in a public meeting: "We've been really successful so far in staying off everyone's radar screens. I guess that's about to end."

What she meant was that CDFIs were going to receive more scrutiny. And they do.

But steadily, if gradually, CDFIs have also seen more opportunities in more diverse situations for themselves and for the communities they serve. Learning to focus outward and to relate well to the people who do not know who we are or what we do is an ongoing challenge. We are good at talking to ourselves; not as good talking to others. CDFIs are still learning to adapt to print and online media, and now we are trying to tell our story via video. It is a compelling media that our kids understand intuitively but that I sometimes struggle to appreciate fully (I rarely see more than two movies a year--at home or in theaters).

Sitting down with Laura Sparks of Citi and Sam Yoon of NACEDA was fun, even while my mind was racing about how to better communicate through the cameras. The CDFI narrative is exciting but demanding, and taking it in often requires a little "suspension of disbelief" (I was an English major). For me, our video feels like it worked, at least enough to move the CDFI story forward.

Mark Pinsky is President and CEO of the community development finance institution (CDFI) industry organization Opportunity Finance Network. Mr. Pinsky worked with Citi to harness the power of video to convey CDFIs' role in community development. CDFIs are key intermediaries that leverage funding to support small businesses and create jobs in communities across the country.

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