St. Louis Fed Event Features CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan

Annie Donovan, director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, spoke at Reviving Louisville’s Distressed Neighborhoods: The Role of CDFIs, a Sept. 28 event hosted by the Community Development department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis at the Bank’s Louisville, Ky., branch.

Community Development financial institutions are meeting diverse community needs, but no one institution can meet all the needs of a community.

That was the message of Annie Donovan, director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund. Donovan spoke at Reviving Louisville’s Distressed Neighborhoods: The Role of CDFIs, a Sept. 28 event hosted by the Community Development department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis at the Bank’s Louisville, Ky., branch.

CDFIs are community development lenders, investors, and financial service providers dedicated to delivering responsible, affordable lending and other financial services to help low-income and other disadvantaged people. The Community Development department at the St. Louis Fed addresses challenges confronting low- and moderate-income communities in the Federal Reserve’s Eighth District.

It’s important for metro areas to have CDFIs engaged in a wide range of lending activity, from small business to affordable housing to consumer finance, Donovan said.

Donovan was named the director of the CDFI Fund in 2014. The agency supports the growth of community development lenders and investors that work in underserved urban, rural and tribal communities. One of the biggest obstacles to economic development in those communities is a lack of access to mainstream sources of private sector capital, according to the CDFI Fund.

The CDFI Fund bases its funding awards on organizations’ balance sheets, not on individual projects. Investment decisions are made locally, so the fund has bi-partisan support, Donovan said.

The event also featured presentations from Emily Wavering, a community development research analyst form the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Bryce Butler, managing director of the nonprofit investment group Access Ventures in Louisville.

For more information about Community Development at the St. Louis Fed, visit https://www.stlouisfed.org/community-development.