Joe Neri
Chief Executive Officer
Joe Neri leads a staff of over 150 highly dedicated and talented professionals working across finance, real estate, development, policy, research, program management, and more.
With 40 years of comprehensive community development experience, Joe has broad, direct experience in nonprofit management, community facility finance, planning and development; affordable housing; community small business lending; child care facilities design, finance, systems planning, and charter school authorizing; and development. He is a passionate writer and advocate for the power of the nonprofit sector as engines of change. He currently serves as a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute.
Joe first joined IFF in 1997 and established IFF’s real estate consulting and research businesses, led IFF’s expansion to 10 states, and created Home First, a housing development corporation for persons with disabilities.
He is past chair of the Board and Treasurer for Allies for Community Business, serves on the Community Advisory Committee for U.S. Bank, chairs the CDFI/FHLB Working Group, and previously served on the Community Advisory Committee of the St. Louis Federal Reserve and numerous nonprofit Boards.
Prior to joining IFF, Joe was associate director of The Resurrection Project, a nationally recognized Chicago community development corporation that he helped to create.
Joe has held adjunct instructor positions at the graduate planning schools of the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois, Chicago. He holds a master’s degree in city planning from University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s in urban affairs from Grinnell College.