The Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance: Celebrating the vision, innovation, and impact of Opportunity Finance. Making game-changing investments in its Next Generation.
Opportunity Finance is a leading example of effective social enterprise. Its mission: to provide capital and financial services that benefit low-income and low-wealth people — building homes, schools, small businesses, and community facilities. Creating jobs. Opening new markets. And helping people join the economic mainstream. The Opportunity Finance industry includes more than 1,200 mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).
The aim of the Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance is to propel high-potential CDFIs to a next level of growth, success, and staying power. As a result, these mission-driven financial institutions will have even greater capacity to innovate, to drive positive policy and systems change, and to deliver tangible benefits to their communities and target markets.
More broadly, the Wachovia NEXT Awards celebrate the entire Opportunity Finance industry — its creativity, accomplishments, and enduring importance. By bridging market gaps and helping mainstream financial institutions and the public sector connect to low- and moderate-income customers and communities, CDFIs are continuously creating opportunities to transform underserved markets and to build a more secure and prosperous future for us all.
