Notes from the Field:
Inclusiv's 8th Annual CDFI Credit Union Update at the GAC
The Inclusiv team was greeted by a near-capacity turnout for the 8th installment of its annual CDFI Credit Union Update at CUNA's Government Affairs Conference, gathering leaders from all corners of the community development finance movement last Monday in Washington, DC. We welcomed speakers from the CDFI Fund, CUNA, EPL, GECU of El Paso, the National Cooperative Bank, and Rapoza Associates to have an in-depth discussion about the impact of CDFI credit unions, what's on the horizon from the CDFI Fund, the current state of funding and advocacy for the Fund, and the history of the movement.
CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris
The morning's M.C. Pablo DeFilippi, Inclusiv's SVP of Membership and Network Engagement, led things off with an overview of the morning's agenda and welcoming remarks from the event's sponsor organizations, EPL and NCB , before thanking our attendees, speakers, and sponsors. Pablo then turned the microphone over to Terry Ratigan, Inclusiv's Senior Consultant, and Mike Schenk, CUNA's VP of Research & Policy Analysis, who shared insights from their research into CDFI credit unions' recent performance. For instance, CDFI credit union lending is up 70% over the past five years while they continue to lend deeper into targeted markets than banks. Meanwhile, Terry Ratigan shared, CDFI credit unions outperformed their mainstream credit union peers in earnings, lending, asset growth, and membership growth.
Jodie Harris, the new Director of the CDFI Fund, was joined by CDFI and NACA Program Manager Amber Kuchar-Bell and Inclusiv's President & CEO, Cathie Mahon, for a discussion of Jodie's vision for the Fund over the next year and beyond. A new pool of funding for the CDFI Fund Capacity Building Initiative will soon be announced and the CDFI Fund's FY 2019 grant round will open this spring. While the Technical Assistance grant awards will be announced by September 30th this year, Financial Assistance awards will be announced in December, 2019. Jodie Harris also reiterated her welcome efforts to make the CDFI Fund under her tenure more transparent than ever before.
Inclusiv's own Cathie Mahon with the CDFI Fund's Amber Kuchar-Bell and Director Jodie Harris
Cathie Mahon was then joined by John Holdsclaw, SVP Corporate Affairs with NCB, Teresa Montoya, VP with GECU of El Paso, and Bob Rapoza, founder of Rapoza Associates, to discuss the current state of advocacy efforts on behalf of CDFI funding. Bob Rapoza shared information on new members to the House and Senate appropriations committees, and highlighted the CDFI Coalition's advocacy platform for FY 2020. The Coalition, in addition to advocating for the value of the CDFI Fund in general, has come out strongly in favor of $250 million in funding for FY 2019, and $300 million in funding for FY 2020.
A content-rich agenda was rounded out by Cliff Rosenthal, former CEO of Inclusiv and author of Democratizing Finance. Cliff Rosenthal gave a brief history of the CDFI movement beginning in earnest with the chartering of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company in 1865 and concluding in 2016, twenty years after CDFI grant funds were first awarded. Along the way, we made brief stops to examine Edward Filene and the birth of credit unions in the US, the roots of the community development finance movement as a reaction to redlining in Chicago in the 1970s, and the establishment of the CDFI Fund through an act of Congress in 1994.
We covered a lot of ground and heard more than a few perspectives on the value that CDFI credit unions have in building resilient communities and the benefits that credit unions find in directing their activities toward historically financially underserved markets. Inclusiv went on to lead several more sessions at the GAC this year, including discussions of secondary capital and serving Hispanic communities through the Juntos Avanzamos program. Thank you to all who made these sessions at the GAC possible, and we hope to see you again for more compelling conversations next year!
Follow this link for a recent creditunion.com article that highlights the impact of CDFI credit unions throughout the country.
In cooperation,
Jules Epstein-Hebert
Program Officer