Opportunity Finance Network Announces $10 Million Investment from Charles Schwab Bank to Advance Finance Justice Fund

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Feb 26, 2024, 10:00 ET

OFN's Finance Justice Fund has invested over $210 million in over 100 members nationwide serving rural, urban, and Native communities

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the nation's leading investment intermediary and network of mission-driven financial institutions, announced a new $10 million investment from Charles Schwab Bank into OFN's Finance Justice Fund, advancing OFN's goals to finance economic opportunity. With over $1 billion in total assets under management, OFN manages a network of over 400 members across the country, which represents the nation's broadest network of certified community development financial institutions (CDFIs) serving rural, urban, and Native communities.

"OFN is deeply committed to mobilizing catalytic investments to support our members and the communities they serve by leveraging the impact and success of the Finance Justice Fund," said OFN President and CEO Harold Pettigrew. "We are excited to welcome Charles Schwab Bank to this effort and celebrate their commitment to drive capital to communities that need it most."

With investments mobilized from philanthropic, corporate, and private investors, OFN has deployed over $210 million in loans and grants to over 100 members nationwide serving rural, urban, and Native communities, including over $8 million in targeted climate-focused investments announced at the end of 2023.

"Charles Schwab Bank is proud to invest in OFN to create more economic opportunity in historically underinvested communities," said Neha Shah, head of community development lending at Charles Schwab Bank. "At Charles Schwab Bank, we recognize the need to drive capital into markets that mainstream financial institutions cannot reach. We are confident in OFN's ability to identify and fund high-impact, emerging CDFIs in its national network."

The Finance Justice Fund underscores OFN's success in driving impact and opportunity in underserved communities. Forty percent of Finance Justice Fund investments have been deployed to OFN members with less than $25 million in assets, reinforcing OFN's commitment to capitalize members that often have the greatest capital need to reach deeper into communities. The CDFIs that have received Finance Justice Fund loans and grants unlocked more than $650 million in small business capital across 27,000 small businesses, financed 14,000 owner-occupied housing units, and created or retained nearly 120,000 jobs.

Charles Schwab Bank joins a growing number of Finance Justice Fund investors committed to capitalizing OFN and its network. Since launching the Fund, OFN has mobilized nearly $270 million in private capital to finance economic opportunity.

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

About OFN

Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is the leading national network of mission-driven community lenders, including certified community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Its membership of more than 400 mission lenders specializes in providing affordable, responsible financial products and services in low-income rural, urban, and Native communities nationwide. As a trusted intermediary between CDFIs and the public and private sectors, OFN works with its partners – banks, philanthropies, corporations, government agencies, and others – to create economic opportunity for all by strengthening and investing in CDFIs.

Since its founding in 1986 and through 2022, the network has originated $111 billion in financing in rural, urban, and Native communities, 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