Selection Criteria

Eligible applicants for each award will be evaluated according to the degree to which they can demonstrate that they have met the respective selection criteria below within the past two years.

Advocacy Award Criteria

The applicant should demonstrate leadership in policy and advocacy at the local, state or national level, demonstrate that policy is a core competency and a critical part of their business and indicate a policy success story associated with their leadership.

Special consideration will be given to an applicant that can also demonstrate advocacy excellence in one or more of the following areas:

  • Actively participating in Opportunity Finance Network’s policy activities and contributing to OFN’s policy results.
  • Approaches to policy that stimulates private investment.

Community Impact Award Criteria

The applicant should demonstrate measurable community outcomes associated with the delivery of their products and services. Applicants should demonstrate high volume and/or quality of outcomes relative to their peers, and explain the tangible differences these outcomes make in the communities served.

Special consideration will be given to an applicant that can also demonstrate community impact in one or more of the following areas:

  • Designing and implementing an effective impact tracking system and either using the data to improve their programs or share their system with other CDFIs.
  • Using their impact data as a feedback tool to improve their programs and update their strategy.

Financing Award Criteria

The applicant should demonstrate excellence in financing during the past two years in one or more of the following areas:

  • Significantly increasing their volume of lending/Investing in their target market.
  • Attracting a major new source of lending/investing capital that has enabled the applicant to dramatically increase their volume of lending/investing in their target market. Please provide data that demonstrate the increased volume of lending/investing.
  • Accessing capital markets in a way that is replicable, that may become a model for the industry, and that has enabled the applicant to dramatically increase their volume of lending/investing in their target market. Please provide data that demonstrate the increased volume of lending/investing.

Innovation Award Criteria

The applicant should demonstrate an organizational environment and management approach that actively cultivates innovation by providing resources and opportunities for risk-taking, creativity, networking, and continual learning and adaptation, and should demonstrate at least one significant result of its innovation.

Special consideration will be given to an applicant that can also demonstrate innovation in one or more of the following areas:

  • Developing a product, service, delivery mechanism, or system that is
    scalable for the applicant or for the industry as a whole.
  • Bringing a product to scale.
  • Changing internal operations for greater efficiency and sustainability
    through new approaches.
  • Developing creative collaborations and partnerships.

In addition to the category-specific criteria above, for all categories, special consideration will be given to opportunity finance institutions that are working
toward bringing the industry to scale by actively promoting and developing partnerships and collaborations with mainstream institutions, government and/or social and political justice organizations.

The Selection Committee may, at its sole discretion under extraordinary circumstances, consider an application submitted under one $25,000 award category for an award under a different $25,000 category.