3RD ANNUAL NEW YORK COALITION OF CDFIs STATEWIDE CONFERENCE
EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY IN NEW YORK STATE
 
May 17 – 18, 2010 | Holiday Inn Express | Albany, NY

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On this page:

• About the New York Coalition of CDFIs
  
• Act Now! *Your Support is Needed*
• What is a CDFI?
• Benefits of CDFI Investments
• Coalition Steering Committee
• Join Now!
• More Information

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About the New York Coalition of CDFIs

In 1986, the Federation first introduced the idea of a “New York Corporation for Community Banking.”  By 1990, we translated and expanded this concept into the “National Neighborhood Banking Corporation.”  With support from our community development colleagues, the Federation co-founded what became the national Coalition of Community Development Financial Institutions.  This coalition, made up by leaders from CDCUs, loan funds, micro-finance groups, venture capital funds, and community banks, pressed successfully for the establishment of the federal CDFI Fund, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

With this national success under our belt, the Federation established the New York Coalition of CDFIs in 1995.  This coalition, which has been solely staffed and operated by the Federation was instrumental in advocating for the creation of a CDFI grant program through New York's Division of Minority and Women's Business and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) . 

While successful in extending between $1 and $1.5 million annually to New York CDFIs to support minority and women-owned small businesses, this program fell short of our full vision: establishing a full-scale CDFI Fund to build institutional capital for the more than 100 CDFIs operating in the state, in much the same way the federal fund has done.

In 2006, however, the tide changed.  The NY State CDFI Coalition brought the Senate leadership together with the NY State Banking Department and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to craft a bill that would house a state CDFI Fund. Unfortunately, this bill passed too late in the 2006 session for reconciliation with a version passed by the Assembly.

In 2007, through the coalition's advocacy, identical legislation creating the framework for a New York State CDFI Fund was introduced in State Senate and Assembly.  Those bills passed both chambers of the legislature with strong bi-partisan supportm and on July 3, 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer signed the bills as Chapter 186 of the laws of 2007.  However, the bills carried no appropriation, so additional action is required.

The goals of the New York Coalition of CDFIs include:

• Securing an initial appropriation of $15 million to the New York CDFI Fund
• Maintaining a separate appropriation of $1.5 million to ESDC's Minority and Women's Business Lending CDFI grant program
• Raising the visibility of CDFIs within New York State's economic development agenda

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CDFIs are financial institutions with a special mission of serving underserved communities and people of modest means. They provide a range of affordable financial services and loans to consumers, homeowners, small businesses and community organizations that finance affordable housing and community facilities. CDFIs specialize in making the types of loans that banks cannot or will not make, either because they lack presence in low-income communities or because borrowers do not conform to conventional underwriting criteria. 

CDFIs include community development credit unions (CDCUs), housing funds, community loan funds, venture capital funds, community banks, and micro-lenders.

CDFIs help low-income individuals build assets, manage debt, and obtain financing to become productive stakeholders in the economy.  They serve the people most often neglected by mainstream financial institutions; 70% of CDFI clients are low-income, 76% are minorities, and 58% are women.

CDFIs fight predatory lending by providing consumer education and affordable financing to assist individual borrowers out of the mounting loan principal and accumulated interest that generally exceeds what they can afford

There are more than 110 CDFIs in New York with more than $1 billion in affordable loans currently outstanding to thousands of economic and community development projects.

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Benefits of CDFI Fund Investments

Implementation of a NYS CDFI Fund complements the Federal CDFI program by providing required non-federal matching dollars to CDFIs in New York.

This type of investment not only supports the wide range of activities CDFIs engage in, but it also helps CDFIs leverage additional resources from foundations and the corporate sector, bringing private and public funds together and multiplying the impact to low- and moderate-income communities across the state.

The federal CDFI Fund provides critically needed capital to CDFIs across the country.  Since inception, it has provided New York CDFIs with:

• $78.7 MM in financing capital
• $1 MM in technical assistance grants
• Each dollar invested in CDFIs leverages $27 in private capital investment

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New York Coalition of CDFIs Steering Committee

The steering committee of the New York Coalition of CDFIs is made up of representatives from every sector of CDFI, both Upstate and Downstate, serving urban and rural populations. Steering Committee members serve in a volunteer capacity to help the Coalition set its legislative agenda, conduct outreach to state and local officials, and provide support in organizing Coalition events, such as the yearly Advocacy Days and Statewide Conferences.

Gina Harman & Jennifer Spaziano ACCION New York New York, NY	David Raynor Leviticus Alternative Fund Yonkers, NY
Gretchen Hanchett ACCORD Corp. Belmont, NY	Patrick James Nonprofit Finance Fund New York, NY
Leni Hochman Alternatives FCU Ithaca, NY	Dana Brunett & Hubert Van Tol PathStone Rochester, NY
Bob Radliff Capital District Community Loan Fund Albany, NY	Lesia Bates Moss & Edwin Hong Seedco New York, NY
Kim Jacobs Community Capital Resources Hawthorne, NY

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Join Now!

The Federation launched the New York Coalition of CDFIs nearly a decade ago, and has served as its sponsor ever since.  Once again, we’re asking all NY-based CDFIs to join as active members of our Coalition and help support our vital work.  Your membership dues helps us cover the cost of staffing the Coalition and organizing our yearly advocacy days and statewide conferences.