Recognized for transformative financing strategies in disinvested communities FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ATLANTA (October 26, 2016) – Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, the Surdna Foundation and Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) today announced that Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF) is a reci...
This is the second in a two-part series. During our JumpStart process consulting assessments, we have heard some common threads around the challenges underserved small businesses face and how that impacts their ability to secure financing. I was able to bucket them into six categories and today I...
The continued evolution of technology and the explosion of online small business lenders has many mission-driven lenders, CDFIs and CDFI banks, searching for ways to compete and remain viable. Small business borrowers have a ton of options and expect a quick and seamless experience. On the other ...
Through our unique experiences as both a direct small business lender and process optimization consultant, we’re often asked to provide our perspective on the challenges today’s small business borrowers face when attempting to access capital. Over time, we have observed and documented six common ...
As part of its Q1 earnings press release, the board of directors of Lending Club announced last week that it had accepted the resignation of Renaud Laplanche as Chairman and CEO following an internal review of sales of $22 million in near-prime loans to a single investor. This announcement also p...
On Thursday, April 21st, Spark held a webinar, CDFIs: Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Tool. We discussed lead generation and the customer decision journey, including how to drive customers to your website, efficiently collect information to qualify them as a lead for your small business ...
Whether you are a Community Advantage (CA) lender or thinking about becoming one, this seminar will provide you with valuable information on how to grow your balance sheet and increase liquidity so you can make even more high impact loans in your community. Our experts will help you understand th...
How efficient is your current small business loan operation? Do you have insight into the cost of customer acquisition? Are you measuring the cost of loan origination? Is everything done manually or do you have multiple systems, each dealing with a different aspect of the process? Alt...
Over the past four years, marketplace lending has grown by over 700%. Loan volume at 13 of the largest online lenders grew from a modest $2 billion in 2010 to a staggering $16 billion in 2014. As mission-driven and responsible lenders, we have a role to play in this new world. The good news? The&...
In 2014, 2.2 million businesses, located in low-income communities, sought credit while CDFIs originated just over 12,300 small business loans. Online small business lenders have stepped in to fill that gap, with multi-million dollar marketing budgets to bring in customers and a streamlined, repe...