Overview of Respondent CDFIs

One hundred and forty of the 147 CDFIs represented in the survey sample (95.2 percent) are certified by the CDFI Fund. Two respondent institutions identified as emerging CDFIs, two identified as non-certified CDFIs and three respondents were unsure about their CDFI certification status.⁴

Of those respondents certified by the CDFI Fund, the years in which they first received certification range from 1995 to 2015, with 2014 being the most frequently cited year of initial certification.⁵ The CDFI Fund requires CDFIs to be recertified every three years and 90 CDFI Fund-certified respondents (64.3 percent) indicated that they have completed the recertification process at least once.

Key Findings

Survey respondents represent all types of CDFIs, and many serve businesses and provide financial education. A large number of respondent CDFIs also indicated the need to focus the efforts of their relatively small number of full-time employees on loan functions.

• Loan funds are the most represented type of CDFI in the survey sample, at 37.5 percent of respondent CDFIs.
• 60.9 percent of respondent CDFIs serve businesses, making business the most targeted market.
• The top three products and services provided by respondent CDFIs are depository services, business loans and financial education.
• The top three functions to which respondent CDFIs devote resources are all related to their lending operations: servicing loans, assessing loans and raising loan capital.