wlm4 at cornell.edu (Will
01-02-1995, 11:15 AM
p to this point, we have all been through creation of our institutions in a
vacuum. There have been no road maps for CDFIs. This should be changing
because of increased publicity. Each institution will be improved because
of our contact with other CDFIs. But this is also a time when standards
are being set, at which we begin to agree what is effective and appropriate.
When we start to measure, I want to be sure we are measuring the right things.
There are many smaller institutions that have done work, invented products,
which could make our institutions better. The learning path is not solely
from larger to smaller institutions. We learn by allowing other models a
place in our mind.
I would like to add two principles to the evaluation criteria for CDFIs:
SUSTAINABLE
LOCALLY CONTROLLED
Low income communities suffer from lack of control as well as lack of
investment. Reinvesting in communities provides only capital: it does not
address control of social assets. Communities can be sustainably self
supporting only when they are internally controlled. A self supporting
community can be profitably served by an interested business. A community
without self control is barely a community and can only be taken advantage of.
You can only serve one master. Direct, immediate, intimate contact with our
members allows us to participate in the implementation of members vision.
This contact is a feedback mechanism. Profit and ownership are the measurement.
An institution may concentrate on funders other that the members be it a
foundation, a government, or outside stockholders. That institution is
serving the funders, not the local community.
The size of the institution is limited by the necessity of a constituency
that self identifies. Otherwise we are acting to create CDFIs that are
independent of community: we are creating social service agencies and not
community development institutions. Acting on the assumption that bigger
is better does mean more resources, larger projects, more services.
Somewhere along this path, local involvement is lost and community
institutions become outside institutions or government agencies with their
own agendas.
Being local and earning our living from our community means that we have
only one constituency. That allows us to be free to speak out. We don't
have to be primarily concerned about funding proposals, legislation, banks,
publicity. We have been asked to ally with other institutions to form both
a regional institution and a national institution. While we have across the
board offered assistance to these organizations in setting up their own
local CDFIs, we have also resisted the lure of out-growing our community.
We call it the fresh bread issue. We can deliver fresh bread in Ithaca, but
the same product delivered anywhere else loses something, it is not fresh
bread. Other towns need their own bakeries to meet their own tastes and
needs. Again, it is not just financial nourishment that we offer. We offer
freshness, local control.
Here are two of the underlying size assumptions I don't buy into:
a) Loan product delivery is our only useful service. This reductionist
outlook ignores the empowerment element of community development. Many of
the smallest CDFIs deliver a multitude of services that build empowerment:
Board training, Committee work, check cashing, a physical sense of
ownership, an advocacy role. These can not be delivered through a regional
development bank. Loan product is not nearly enough.
b) Face to face contact and peer counseling are not necessary. The CDFI
telling lobby (and services) are a focus of community identity and
networking. CDFI lobbies are busier than many of the larger banks downtown.
I often can't easily get out of our office for lunch because members
buttonhole me. We have to listen to our members and continue to be exposed
to them.
************************************************** **********
William Myers
Alternatives Federal Credit Union
301 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850-5431
Voice (607) 273-3582 ext 817 FAX 277-6391
E-Mail Alternatives-Myers@Cornell.edu
************************************************** **********
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
vacuum. There have been no road maps for CDFIs. This should be changing
because of increased publicity. Each institution will be improved because
of our contact with other CDFIs. But this is also a time when standards
are being set, at which we begin to agree what is effective and appropriate.
When we start to measure, I want to be sure we are measuring the right things.
There are many smaller institutions that have done work, invented products,
which could make our institutions better. The learning path is not solely
from larger to smaller institutions. We learn by allowing other models a
place in our mind.
I would like to add two principles to the evaluation criteria for CDFIs:
SUSTAINABLE
LOCALLY CONTROLLED
Low income communities suffer from lack of control as well as lack of
investment. Reinvesting in communities provides only capital: it does not
address control of social assets. Communities can be sustainably self
supporting only when they are internally controlled. A self supporting
community can be profitably served by an interested business. A community
without self control is barely a community and can only be taken advantage of.
You can only serve one master. Direct, immediate, intimate contact with our
members allows us to participate in the implementation of members vision.
This contact is a feedback mechanism. Profit and ownership are the measurement.
An institution may concentrate on funders other that the members be it a
foundation, a government, or outside stockholders. That institution is
serving the funders, not the local community.
The size of the institution is limited by the necessity of a constituency
that self identifies. Otherwise we are acting to create CDFIs that are
independent of community: we are creating social service agencies and not
community development institutions. Acting on the assumption that bigger
is better does mean more resources, larger projects, more services.
Somewhere along this path, local involvement is lost and community
institutions become outside institutions or government agencies with their
own agendas.
Being local and earning our living from our community means that we have
only one constituency. That allows us to be free to speak out. We don't
have to be primarily concerned about funding proposals, legislation, banks,
publicity. We have been asked to ally with other institutions to form both
a regional institution and a national institution. While we have across the
board offered assistance to these organizations in setting up their own
local CDFIs, we have also resisted the lure of out-growing our community.
We call it the fresh bread issue. We can deliver fresh bread in Ithaca, but
the same product delivered anywhere else loses something, it is not fresh
bread. Other towns need their own bakeries to meet their own tastes and
needs. Again, it is not just financial nourishment that we offer. We offer
freshness, local control.
Here are two of the underlying size assumptions I don't buy into:
a) Loan product delivery is our only useful service. This reductionist
outlook ignores the empowerment element of community development. Many of
the smallest CDFIs deliver a multitude of services that build empowerment:
Board training, Committee work, check cashing, a physical sense of
ownership, an advocacy role. These can not be delivered through a regional
development bank. Loan product is not nearly enough.
b) Face to face contact and peer counseling are not necessary. The CDFI
telling lobby (and services) are a focus of community identity and
networking. CDFI lobbies are busier than many of the larger banks downtown.
I often can't easily get out of our office for lunch because members
buttonhole me. We have to listen to our members and continue to be exposed
to them.
************************************************** **********
William Myers
Alternatives Federal Credit Union
301 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850-5431
Voice (607) 273-3582 ext 817 FAX 277-6391
E-Mail Alternatives-Myers@Cornell.edu
************************************************** **********
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list