Archive: Business & Technology

The nation’s largest and most prestigious awards program for community development financial institutions (CDFIs) announced today that Alternatives Federal Credit Union is a finalist for an award of $5.5 million in the highly competitive 2010 Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance. Awardees will be announced prior to an awards celebration on Wednesday, November 3, at Opportunity Finance Network’s (OFN’s) 26th Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA.

“The finalists for this year’s Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance each demonstrate excellence and proven expertise serving important opportunity markets. These inspiring organizations have delivered real results for low-wealth and low-income communities and exemplify how CDFIs can drive economic recovery and growth in those markets,” said Mark Pinsky, President and CEO of the Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network, the leading national network of high-performance CDFIs.

Being a finalist for the NEXT Award is a tremendous affirmation of our work,” says Tristram Coffin, CEO of Alternatives. “The $5.5 million award would allow us to expand successful programs that improve the lives of people in our area.  It could make an enormous difference in our ability to build wealth and create economic opportunity for underserved people and communities.”

The Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is run and funded through OFN by The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The awards recognize excellence among financial institutions that responsibly serve low-income and low-wealth people and communities and were established to spotlight how CDFIs increasingly benefit our nation’s economy.

CDFIs are market-based, private sector financial intermediaries that create opportunities for low-wealth and low-income individuals and institutions and spark growth in hard-to-serve markets across the nation.

“This year’s finalists are taking CDFIs to the next level,” said Lesley Eckstein, executive vice president and group head, Community Lending and Investment, for Wells Fargo. “Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company, is proud to support these community-based funding organizations with an $8.3 million investment in the Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance, which will help families and communities in underserved communities work toward financial independence and gain more access to credit.”

“Since the inception of the Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance three years ago, we have seen unprecedented positive changes for the communities served by the awardees,” added Debra Schwartz, director of program-related investments for the MacArthur Foundation. “For example, IFF—the Midwest’s largest CDFI dedicated solely to financing real estate projects of nonprofits— used their 2008 $5.5 million award to increase lending by 77%, launch a new product for land trusts, and to solidify a geographic expansion into three major cities, to serve more people in more low-income communities. We believe this year’s awardees will follow in IFF’s footsteps by affecting positive changes in the communities they serve.”

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