Mark Barbash, EVP Strategic Initiatives
This past week, a delegation of Finance Fund staff participated in the 2015 annual meeting of the Opportunity Finance Network, the premier association of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI).
This year, more than 1,200 professionals from around the country met in downtown Detroit, a community that is showing remarkable signs of resilience coming out of the bankruptcy filing and recent recession.
Finance Fund participants included President Diana Turoff, EVP for Strategic Initiatives Mark Barbash, VP of Lending Tara Campbell, Director of Development Valerie Heiby, and Senior Manager of Development Amber Seitz.
Throughout the week, we discussed issues of importance to helping citizens build strong neighborhoods and communities:
- Annie Donovan, the new Director of the CDFI Fund, talked about “supporting the growth, reach and performance of CDFIs” along with need for better data, transparency, and linking future funding with past performance
- A unique idea exchange, sponsored by the Kresge Foundation, provided insights about how CDFIs can be more responsive to the needs in their communities
- Discussions with many of the nation’s leading funders and peer CDFIs enabled us to exchange ideas about raising flexible capital that can more effectively support small business development
- A well-attended panel discussion on Healthy Food Financing Initiatives featured Finance Fund and three other practitioners who compared notes on how to effectively support bringing healthy food retail into underserved neighborhoods
One of the most interesting sessions featured a number of CDFIs that are participating in major initiatives to bring Detroit back from the recent recession. We learned about work being done to support housing, small business, community development and strong neighborhoods; and about major investments from funders like Wells-Fargo, the Kresge Foundation and JPMorgan Chase.
We returned to Ohio with a renewed sense of commitment and fresh insights into Finance Fund and FCAP’s statewide work.
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