Opportunity Finance Network Fully Deploys $25 Million Grant from Wells Fargo to Support Mission-Driven Small Business Lenders Across Rural, Urban, and Native Communities

Catalytic support for OFN's Finance Justice Fund benefited community development financial institutions nationwide, creating or saving 100,000 jobs.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) announces the successful deployment of $25 million in catalytic philanthropic funding from Wells Fargo to community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that invest in small businesses across the country. The capital was deployed through OFN's Finance Justice Fund, which mobilizes philanthropic, corporate, and private funders to address the racial wealth gap and persistent poverty by financing Black, Latino, Native, rural, and other underinvested communities.

Wells Fargo's $25 million grant, made in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was unprecedented in size and scope and remains the largest grant to the Finance Justice Fund. OFN leveraged the capital into additional public and private capital.

The 90 OFN member CDFIs that received Wells Fargo funds supported 11,000 small businesses and created or retained nearly 100,000 jobs in one year of lending activity. The funding will contribute to ongoing community investment and impact. Of the capital deployed, 67% of the funded entrepreneurs are people of color, and 86% are low-income, low-wealth, or from otherwise disinvested communities.  

"OFN is proud of our longtime relationship with Wells Fargo, and its support of the Finance Justice Fund exemplifies the bank's commitment to strengthening small businesses, especially during crisis," said Harold Pettigrew, President and CEO of OFN. "This type of catalytic capital not only helped CDFIs support their small business clients during the pandemic, but it also continues to help create jobs and promote community development in areas that have been historically underinvested."

Launched in 2020, the Finance Justice Fund advances OFN's mission to align capital with racial, economic, and climate justice. The program's transformative design provides debt capital to CDFIs to invest in their communities. The loans are paired with grants that support CDFI operations, which are critical to helping CDFIs expand responsible financing in their communities. As of July 2024, OFN has deployed more than $251 million in loans and grants to 135 of its members nationwide through the Finance Justice Fund.

"We are proud to work with OFN to boost the capacity of CDFIs and expand the mission, reach, and impact of these specialized lenders that serve as critical engines of economic development," said Darlene Goins, Head of Philanthropy and Community Impact, Wells Fargo. "Wells Fargo's grant and longtime relationship with OFN and CDFIs reflects the bank's deep commitment to fostering economic resilience and growth in all communities."

The impact of Wells Fargo's funding will be felt for years as OFN's members create new loan products, strengthen their lending capabilities with increased loan loss reserves and organizational capacity, and continue to offer affordable capital and technical assistance to clients.

Specifically, the grant funding helps mission-driven lenders like Michigan-based Northern Initiatives hire staff and improve technology, expanding the CDFI's capacity to assist more underserved entrepreneurs statewide. With grant support, Entrepreneur Fund in Minnesota reached new markets of small business owners across predominantly rural and historically underinvested communities. With its Finance Justice Fund grant, Foodshed Capital, a CDFI serving local urban farmers in the Philadelphia area, created a new leadership position that significantly increased its lending activity.  

Wells Fargo has long supported CDFIs, providing them with the financing and philanthropic capital they need to strengthen the small business ecosystem. The grant for the Finance Justice Fund was part of roughly $250 million in grant capital extended to CDFIs through the bank's Open for Business Fund.

For more information on OFN's Finance Justice Fund, please visit https://www.ofn.org/current-initiatives/finance-justice-fund.   

About Opportunity Finance Network

Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is the nation's leading network and intermediary focused on community development investment, managing over $1 billion in total assets and a membership of over 450 community development financial institutions (CDFIs), which includes community development loan funds, credit unions, green banks, banks, minority depository institutions, and venture capital funds. Our network of CDFIs works to ensure communities underserved by mainstream finance have access to affordable, responsible financial products and services, with a deep focus on serving rural, urban, and Native communities across the United States. OFN is a trusted investment partner to the public, private, and philanthropic sectors – foundations, corporations, banks, government agencies, and others – and, for nearly 40 years, has helped partners invest in communities to catalyze change and create economic opportunities for all.

Since its founding in 1986, OFN members have originated over $110 billion in financing, helping to create or maintain more than 3 million jobs, start or expand more than 850,000 businesses and microenterprises, and support the development or rehabilitation of nearly 2.4 million housing units and more than 14,000 community facility projects.

SOURCE Opportunity Finance Network