Pu'erEditor

Proposal to Expand "Notable CDFIs"

{{Request edit}} The section called "Notable CDFIs" is thin, and could use information on other notable CDFIs in addition to ShoreBank. While I am engaged in CDFI industry in general, I am also an employee of Self-Help and so am most familiar with its operations. I've drafted an expanded version of the "Notable CDFI" section for community review as it includes information on Self-Help, as well as additional information on ShoreBank, and correct alphabetization of the CDFI list. I believe these are additions are relevant to the article and just plain interesting.

I've reviewed the Wikipedia conflict of interest guidelines and believe this post meets them. (neutral tone, 3rd party citations, no financial benefit from post, all verifiable information, etc.)

Feedback requested, edits welcome.

Thanks, (Pu'erEditor (talk) 22:19, 11 August 2008 (UTC)) Proposed edit below:

Notable CDFIs

ShoreBank, headquartered in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, was founded in 1973. It is the largest CDFI, with over $2 billion in assets.[1] ShoreBank has branches in Chicago’s South and West sides, Cleveland, and Detroit. Through its holding company ShoreBank Corporation, ShoreBank promotes its community development mission through affiliates in Oregon and Washington state, and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. ShoreBank’s international consulting services have offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and London, and projects in 30 countries around the world.

Self-Help is another leading CDFI, founded in 1980 in Durham, North Carolina. Self-Help's home and business lending, targeting traditionally underserved populations such as minority, rural and female borrowers, has provided over $5.24 billion in financing.[2] Self-Help also includes a real estate development team and retail credit unions, and operates a national secondary market program that enables conventional lenders to make more home loans to low-wealth families. In response to predatory lenders increasingly targeting family wealth in poor and minority communities, Self-Help in 1999 worked with the NAACP, AARP and other North Carolina groups to form the Coalition for Responsible Lending and help enact one of the US's first laws to curb predatory mortgage lending.[3] In 2002, Self-Help started the affiliated Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization that recommends solutions to predatory lending abuses.[4]

Other CDFIs include:

• Albina Community Bank in Portland, OR
• Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca, NY
• Boston Community Capital in Boston, MA
• Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York, NY
• Central Bank of Kansas City in Kansas City, MO
• City First Bank of D.C. in Washington, D.C.
• Community First Fund in Lancaster, PA
• Dryades Savings Bank in New Orleans, LA
• Enterprise Corporation of the Delta in Jackson, MS
• Hope Community Credit Union in Jackson, MS
• Liberty Bank & Trust in New Orleans, LA
• Louisville Community Development Bank in Louisville, KY
• Low Income Investment Fund in San Francisco, CA
• Neighborhood National Bank in San Diego, CA
• Nonprofit Finance Fund in New York, NY
• Partners for the Common Good in Washington, DC
• Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, AR
• University National Bank in St. Paul, MN
• Street UK in Birmingham, England
• GLE OneLondon in London, England

While the CDFI Fund and its certifications are limited to the U.S., CDFIs exist around the world, such as Grameen Bank in Bangladesh or the recently created Fair Finance Consortium in the UK, a collaboration of 11 CFDIs focused on improving access to alternative forms of finance within disadvantaged areas.