Vision
We envision a world in which communities are socially, economically, and environmentally safe and healthy with the capacity to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience and where all people—especially communities of color, Native Nations, and those that are under-resourced—are able to reach their full potential, supported by equal access to responsible capital.
Mission Statement for Equitable Resilience
Build the capacity of low-income, low-wealth, and other underserved people and communities to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience by ensuring access to affordable, responsible financial products and services that embrace resilience planning and implementation.
Vision
We envision a world in which communities are socially, economically, and environmentally safe and healthy with the capacity to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience and where all people—especially communities of color, Native Nations, and those that are under-resourced—are able to reach their full potential, supported by equal access to responsible capital.
Mission Statement for Equitable Resilience
Build the capacity of low-income, low-wealth, and other underserved people and communities to survive, adapt, and thrive no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience by ensuring access to affordable, responsible financial products and services that embrace resilience planning and implementation.
Core Values for Equitable Resilience
- Investing in resilience will improve quality of life. Investing in resilience will reduce and help prevent the impact of shocks and stresses on a community's people, physical environment, and economy; accelerate recovery; and improve the quality of life for a community's residents.
- Responsible resilience requires consideration of lifespan. Responsible resilient investing requires that the lifespan of the project, program, or service be considered and addressed at every capital moment.
- Shared resilience requires a focus on equity/anti-racism, climate change, and globalization. Resilience cannot be achieved through the broader community development sector without a focus on the intersection of equity/anti-racism, climate change, and globalization that adversely and disproportionally affects communities and people who are already burdened and marginalized.
- Community resilience is most effectively delivered through integrated, holistic efforts. Addressing resilience challenges in an integrated and holistic way will help communities realize multiple benefits across sectors and stakeholders.
- Everyone is entitled to participate equally in social, economic, and political life. Every facet of our work should be directed toward and reflect an unwavering commitment to fair and equal access to, opportunity in, and responsibility for social, economic, and political life.
- Our customers deserve excellence. The people and the communities that CDFIs serve have a right to expect excellence, and we have a responsibility to provide it. A commitment to excellence is a statement of our respect for our customers, investors, funders, staff, Board, and members, as well as those stakeholders in the community this work touches.
- Input from a wide-ranging and diverse group of stakeholders must shape our work. The work products/tools we create together shall be designed with input from a wide-ranging and diverse group of representatives and stakeholders and piloted, market-tested, and refined before rollout.
- Our work is for the good of all; therefore, all work products shall be freely available. The work products/tools we create together shall be "open source," available for use and adoption by all in the broader sector.
Resilience Principles
To build individual, community, and organizational resilience, community development investors and lenders shall integrate the following core principles into business development services, financing programs, and organizational process and practices:
- Ensure a resilience-based process in all endeavors. A resilience-based process requires that: (1) affected/influenced/leading stakeholders are engaged individually, organizationally, or as a community, especially communities of color, Native communities, and those that are under-resourced, and (2) the mix of shocks and stresses that the project, program, or service is intended to solve or could face are thoroughly investigated. This includes social, environmental, and physical elements of the community at hand, while focusing on equitable, holistic resilience.
- Strive for reliable performance and intended outcomes in both routine and extraordinary situations under all reasonably foreseeable conditions over the delivery lifespan of the project, program, or service. Once foreseeable shocks and ongoing stresses at the local level have been identified, the project, program, or services shall be evaluated through: (1) examination of forecasting/lifecycle data, (2) consideration of project stages (construction, start-up, etc.), sustainability, standards, impacts (social and environmental), etc.; (3) financial stress testing, (4) review of operations and management, including emergency operations for the project, where possible and applicable. Further, the project, program, or services will be structured to avoid, minimize, mitigate, and recover from all reasonably foreseeable risks and potential cascading events. Performance and outcomes must exhibit equity and economic empowerment well beyond risks.
- Create positive "co-benefits" and minimize short and long-term negative impacts by recognizing the systemic interdependencies that exist (in all communities/settings). Through designed first and foremost to achieve its primary objectives for its defined client/target market, regional, national, and/or global objectives for vulnerable populations equity, climate mitigation, and disaster risk reduction. The project, program, or service will be structured to positively affect the community and greater system and to boost positive impacts, and to avoid or lessen negative impacts and unintended consequences.
Characteristics of a Resilient Community Development Lender (R-CDL)
What would it mean for CDFIs, green banks, and other community development lenders to be truly resilient organizations? To answer the questions, the ResCDF Initiative has developed the concept of a Resilient Community Development Lender (R-CDL). Intentionally, this concept sets a very high bar. A R-CDL can be an organization, an individual, or both. An individual R-CDL may be the change agent who is working to change their organization into a R-CDL.
The following characteristics describe our vision for a Resilient Community Development Lender (R-CDL):
- A R-CDL is committed to the vision of holistic equitable resilience for all and to integrating that vision into all facets of its work.
- A R-CDL is knowledgeable with a well-developed functional feedback loop, growing a robust internal culture of learning, engaging in an external community of practice, measuring impact, and innovating.
- A R-CDL is accountable, clearly articulating goals, reporting on results, and answering to affected/influenced/leading stakeholders, especially communities of color, Native communities, and those that are under-resourced.
- A R-CDL is proactive, relentlessly pursuing and protecting equitable, holistic resilience for borrowers, stakeholders, and the community in the face of the mix of shocks and stresses that threaten them.
- A R-CDL is responsible, ensuring that every action and decision benefits the community and greater system, boosts positive impacts, and avoids or lessens negative impacts and unintended consequences.
Check out the [Quick Start Guide ] and accompanying [toolkit] for practical steps to operationalizing equitable resilience and becoming an R-CDL.
For Equitable Resilience
- Investing in resilience will improve quality of life. Investing in resilience will reduce and help prevent the impact of shocks and stresses on a community's people, physical environment, and economy; accelerate recovery; and improve the quality of life for a community's residents.
- Responsible resilience requires consideration of lifespan. Responsible resilient investing requires that the lifespan of the project, program, or service be considered and addressed at every capital moment.
- Shared resilience requires a focus on equity/anti-racism, climate change, and globalization. Resilience cannot be achieved through the broader community development sector without a focus on the intersection of equity/anti-racism, climate change, and globalization that adversely and disproportionally affects communities and people who are already burdened and marginalized.
- Community resilience is most effectively delivered through integrated, holistic efforts. Addressing resilience challenges in an integrated and holistic way will help communities realize multiple benefits across sectors and stakeholders.
- Everyone is entitled to participate equally in social, economic, and political life. Every facet of our work should be directed toward and reflect an unwavering commitment to fair and equal access to, opportunity in, and responsibility for social, economic, and political life.
- Our customers deserve excellence. The people and the communities that CDFIs serve have a right to expect excellence, and we have a responsibility to provide it. A commitment to excellence is a statement of our respect for our customers, investors, funders, staff, Board, and members, as well as those stakeholders in the community this work touches.
- Input from a wide-ranging and diverse group of stakeholders must shape our work. The work products/tools we create together shall be designed with input from a wide-ranging and diverse group of representatives and stakeholders and piloted, market-tested, and refined before rollout.
- Our work is for the good of all; therefore, all work products shall be freely available. The work products/tools we create together shall be "open source," available for use and adoption by all in the broader sector.
To build individual, community, and organizational resilience, community development investors and lenders shall integrate the following core principles into business development services, financing programs, and organizational process and practices:
- Ensure a resilience-based process in all endeavors. A resilience-based process requires that: (1) affected/influenced/leading stakeholders are engaged individually, organizationally, or as a community, especially communities of color, Native communities, and those that are under-resourced, and (2) the mix of shocks and stresses that the project, program, or service is intended to solve or could face are thoroughly investigated. This includes social, environmental, and physical elements of the community at hand, while focusing on equitable, holistic resilience.
- Strive for reliable performance and intended outcomes in both routine and extraordinary situations under all reasonably foreseeable conditions over the delivery lifespan of the project, program, or service. Once foreseeable shocks and ongoing stresses at the local level have been identified, the project, program, or services shall be evaluated through: (1) examination of forecasting/lifecycle data, (2) consideration of project stages (construction, start-up, etc.), sustainability, standards, impacts (social and environmental), etc.; (3) financial stress testing, (4) review of operations and management, including emergency operations for the project, where possible and applicable. Further, the project, program, or services will be structured to avoid, minimize, mitigate, and recover from all reasonably foreseeable risks and potential cascading events. Performance and outcomes must exhibit equity and economic empowerment well beyond risks.
- Create positive "co-benefits" and minimize short and long-term negative impacts by recognizing the systemic interdependencies that exist (in all communities/settings). Through designed first and foremost to achieve its primary objectives for its defined client/target market, regional, national, and/or global objectives for vulnerable populations equity, climate mitigation, and disaster risk reduction. The project, program, or service will be structured to positively affect the community and greater system and to boost positive impacts, and to avoid or lessen negative impacts and unintended consequences.
What would it mean for CDFIs, green banks, and other community development lenders to be truly resilient organizations? To answer the questions, the ResCDF Initiative has developed the concept of a Resilient Community Development Lender (R-CDL). Intentionally, this concept sets a very high bar. A R-CDL can be an organization, an individual, or both. An individual R-CDL may be the change agent who is working to change their organization into a R-CDL.
The following characteristics describe our vision for a Resilient Community Development Lender (R-CDL):
- A R-CDL is committed to the vision of holistic equitable resilience for all and to integrating that vision into all facets of its work.
- A R-CDL is knowledgeable with a well-developed functional feedback loop, growing a robust internal culture of learning, engaging in an external community of practice, measuring impact, and innovating.
- A R-CDL is accountable, clearly articulating goals, reporting on results, and answering to affected/influenced/leading stakeholders, especially communities of color, Native communities, and those that are under-resourced.
- A R-CDL is proactive, relentlessly pursuing and protecting equitable, holistic resilience for borrowers, stakeholders, and the community in the face of the mix of shocks and stresses that threaten them.
- A R-CDL is responsible, ensuring that every action and decision benefits the community and greater system, boosts positive impacts, and avoids or lessens negative impacts and unintended consequences.
Check out the Quick Start Guide and accompanying toolkit for practical steps to operationalizing equitable resilience and becoming an R-CDL.
