Join us at the 2015 Opportunity Finance Conference in Detroit, MI from November 9-12. 2015. We’ll be participating in three exciting panels:
Getting to Yes with Your Loan Committee
Presenters: Kelly Bougere, Capital Impact Partners; Jennifer Trepinski, Corporation for Supportive Housing; Kavita Gobburi, Community Vision; Connie Max, Local Initiatives Support Corporation; and Michael Carroll, RCAC
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
2:15 PM – 3:45 PM
Are you curious about the specifics of credit memos, what to focus on during a loan presentation, how other CDFIs structure their loan approval processes, and how to best present a transaction to a loan committee? This session will provide some techniques, tips, and best practices related to preparing and presenting both housing and facility loans. This session is for lenders and other staff involved in underwriting, reviewing, or approving loans. It will be particularly helpful to those interested in making their loan preparation and approval process more efficient, less frustrating, and a better experience for both lending staff and committee members. The session will include a presentation and discussion of different types of credit memos, loan approval processes, loan committee structures, and loan presentations, and will include a discussion on how to handle difficult questions and ultimately get to a yes vote.
Track: Lending: Sourcing, Underwriting, and Portfolio Management
Creating Permanent Community Assets in the Face of Rapid Gentrification
Moderator: Catherine Howard, Community Vision
Panelists: Tom De Simone, Genesis LA; Andrea Papanastassiou, Community Vision; and Jake Levine, CityFirst Enterprises
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
4:15 PM – 5:30 PM
With the increasing popularity of urban living, many cities across the country are seeing extremely rapid gentrification in historically low-income communities, many of them communities of color. In the face of increasing costs for housing and community facilities, is it possible to create permanent assets in gentrifying neighborhoods to ensure the long-term availability of affordable housing, community services, local arts programs, and other institutions that together contribute to healthy communities with a socio-economically diverse range of residents? How can CDFIs work with partners to create social equity and permanent community assets? This panel discussion explores innovative collaborations among foundations, government, CDFIs, and other stakeholders that have created permanently affordable space for community programs and low-income residents in rapidly gentrifying communities. Panelists will talk about several unique approaches to ensuring equity in the face of gentrification, and how their efforts can be replicated in communities nationwide.
Track: Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity
Assessing Impact to Guide Lending and Investing
Presenters: Andrew Baldwin, CSH; Ross Culverwell, Community Vision; Dan Betancourt, Community First Fund; and Daniel Brett, Pacific Community Ventures
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM
As CDFIs, we’re very attentive to mission considerations. We’re also good at measuring the financial aspects of what we do. What we tend to do with varying success and rigor, however, is assess the strategic and/or social impact of our loans and investments in the upfront underwriting and decision-making stages. In this interactive session, three CDFIs will discuss how they’re thinking about this issue, implementing their own upfront evaluation systems, what they hope to achieve by more rigorously measuring impact during the underwriting stage, and the challenges in developing such a system. This session will engage participants in exploring how the measurement of strategic and social impact during the underwriting stage can advance their own missions and advance their thinking about the potential tradeoffs between mission, risk, and financial return.
Track: Lending: Sourcing, Underwriting, and Portfolio Management
