In 2019, IFF CEO Joe Neri testified at a Congressional hearing on the CDFI Fund, saying, “The very essence of the CDFI Fund acknowledges the old adage that ‘Washington doesn’t always know best.’ That’s because the power of the CDFI Fund — and the reason I believe it has received strong bipartisan support for so many years — is that it is not a one-size-fits-all policy prescription developed in Washington, D.C. Instead, the flexible grants it provides to mission-driven lenders of every type — serving people, businesses, and communities with completely different needs and challenges — puts capital into the hands of the local problem solvers best equipped to find solutions.”
Today, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994, which created the CDFI Fund (the Fund) and the opportunity to promote economic and community development in under-resourced neighborhoods by making equity investments in community development lenders, investors, and financial service providers.
Over the last 30 years, the Fund has been a tremendous success and a rare example of bipartisan agreement in Washington, awarding more than $7 billion to mission-driven lenders. In turn, organizations like IFF have then been able to raise additional private capital and reinvest those funds on an ongoing basis to mitigate and solve local challenges. Because of the Fund, more than 1,400 CDFIs exist across all 50 states, each of which provides flexible loans and financial services to urban and rural communities that have been historically underserved by traditional financial institutions.
For IFF, the last 30 years of the Fund have further enhanced our mission of strengthening nonprofits and the communities they serve and have been integral to our ability to provide $1.6 billion in flexible, affordable financing to nonprofits serving a variety of sectors to increase their financial stability and programmatic offerings. These investments have leveraged $5.83 billion, developed more than 42 million square feet of real estate, and created more than 16,000 child care slots, 160,900 school seats, 725,500 new patient visits, and 20,500 units of affordable housing.
We look forward to the Fund’s next thirty years and continued investment that builds on the impressive impact achieved since 1994.
Click here to read a statement on the anniversary from Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen.