The Center for Impact Finance (CIF) is a nationally recognized applied research center advancing equitable community finance through research, training, and practitioner-driven solutions. By promoting access to capital for underserved communities, CIF addresses income and wealth inequality and strengthens community-based lending ecosystems.
CIF is home to respected thought leaders in the community and economic development field and has a successful record of working with practitioners to develop actionable policy and finance solutions to address economic, societal, and environmental challenges. CIF conducts original research, provides training for community-based lenders and developers, designs financing products, initiatives, and policies, and convenes the community and economic development field to promote collaboration.
CORE CAPABILITIES & WORKSTREAMS
CIF conducts applied research and evaluation to build a knowledge base on what works in community and economic development and how innovative financing strategies can increase access to capital in underserved communities. CIF's research team brings together interdisciplinary expertise in community finance, program evaluation, impact measurement, and financial modeling.
CIF's training programs provide in-depth, university-quality instruction that attracts talented people to the community development finance sector and strengthens the leadership skills of those in the field. CIF's catalog of training includes the Fundamentals of Community Development Finance, training in food system lending, clean energy finance, and microfinance and enterprise development. CIF customizes training courses as need to meet the needs of the community finance field.
CIF helps to strengthen the institutional capacity of CDFIs and other community-based lenders, assisting them to diversify their sources of capital, advance critical initiatives for the field, take stock of their progress, and build bridges to complementary fields working to strengthen sustainable communities.
CIF actively engages key stakeholders and brings together thought leaders from the finance, government, U.S. nonprofit, international nongovernmental, and for-profit sectors to create comprehensive solutions and strategies for communities defined by either geography or mission. Many of CIF's applied projects are a direct result of these strategic convenings, facilitating the advancement of impact finance to reduce income inequality.
