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Application Materials

• $5.5 Million and $2.75 Million
  Wachovia NEXT Awards
• Timeline
• Conditions & Eligibility
• Selection Criteria
• How to Apply
• Application Guidelines
• $25,000 Wachovia NEXT Awards
• Timeline
• Conditions & Eligibility
• Selection Criteria
• How to Apply
• Application Guidelines
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Glossary of Financial Terms

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Selection Criteria

Eligible applicants for each award will be evaluated according to the degree to which 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 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 stimulate private investment.

Community Impact Award Criteria

The applicant should demonstrate measurable community outcomes associated with the delivery of its 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:

• Attracting a major new source of lending/investing capital that has enabled the applicant to dramatically increase its volume of lending/investing.
• Accessing capital markets in a way that is replicable for the applicant and that may become a model for the industry.

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.
• Embodying the development of the new business model Opportunity
  Finance Network believes is necessary for success.

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.