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This article originally appeared on the CDFI Fund's Impact Blog.
The Impact of Community Investing
One of
the most energizing aspects of my job as director of the Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) is engaging with a diverse array of stakeholders
who care about creating economic opportunity in distressed communities and
telling them the CDFI story. I find that
too often, the innovative and impactful work of CDFIs, CDEs and other organizations
served by the CDFI Fund is not as well understood as it should be. In order to spread the word about this
amazing work, we
are launching a new feature on our public website: Impact Stories.
Through Impact
Stories, we will spotlight the outcomes that CDFI Fund awardees are achieving
in communities across the nation. We
will showcase the diverse and essential financial services, lending, and
investments CDFIs, CDEs, and other awardees provide every day in distressed and underserved rural, urban, and Native
American (including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian) communities.
CDFI Fund awardees
help entrepreneurs get off the ground and existing small businesses grow their
operations. They expand access to affordable housing and homeownership for
low-income people. They finance healthcare facilities and other vital community
centers that assist vulnerable populations, such as disabled veterans. They create access to safe and affordable
financial products for those on the margins of the financial system. They develop
communications networks and infrastructure to expand critical community
services and enhance economic development opportunities.
Of course, no good
impact story should be told without data.
And we will be using these impact stories to highlight what we are
learning from the ever improving data we collect from our awardees.
The CDFI Fund
needs your help in identifying stories and best practices that are having
impact in distressed and underserved communities across the nation. Submit your
story suggestions to the CDFI Fund here.
Interested in seeing more? Sign up to receive CDFI Fund
Impact Stories as we release them, or keep an eye on our Impact Blog.
And check out our FY
2016 Year in Review to learn more about the impact
of CDFIs and the CDFI Fund’s programs. Full information about the CDFI Fund’s
programs can be found at www.cdfifund.gov.
Annie Donovan is Director of the CDFI Fund.
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