Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network awarded $5 million to five community development financial institutions for experiments with new financial products and models in underserved communities.
The winners include: Reinvestment Fund, which will commit the $500,000 award to its pay-for-success fund; Minneapolis-based Metropolitan Economic Development Association, which will develop a “patient equity” product for early stage minority entrepreneurs; and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. in Brunswick, Maine, which will use the $1.5 million award to provide long-term debt and equity to commercial solar projects.
Opportunity Finance Network awarded the funding through its NEXT Fund for Innovation, a partnership with Wells Fargo, Prudential Financial, and the MacArthur and Kresge foundations.
