CSDC named Finalist for Wachovia Wells Fargo NEXT Award for Opportunity Finance
(Hanover, MD, October 18, 2011) The Charter Schools Development
Corporation (CSDC) has been named a finalist for a $25,000 grant
award to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that
have demonstrated excellence in financing, according to the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the nation's
leading network of high-performance CDFIs. The Wachovia Wells
Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance is the nation's largest
and most prestigious awards program for responsible finance.
It's managed by OFN in partnership with the Wachovia Wells Fargo
Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. Winners will be announced
at the Opportunity Finance Network Conference on November
15th in Minneapolis.
The aim of the Wachovia Wells Fargo Next Awards for Opportunity
Finance is to propel CDFIs to a next level of growth, success and
staying power so they have even greater capacity to innovate and
deliver tangible benefits to their communities. "The NEXT
Awards celebrate CDFIs that produce tangible impacts in the
communities they serve," explained Mark Pinsky, President and CEO
of OFN. "The 2011 finalists each have demonstrated a
commitment to improving the lives of families and individuals
through their NEXT-level initiatives that finance housing,
community facilities, and small business projects in low-income
areas." More information about the NEXT Awards is available
at www.nextawards.org.
CSDC, the only CDFI focused exclusively on the financial and
facility needs of charter schools nationwide, is being recognized
for developing innovative and replicable models to provide charter
school organizations with affordable capital in difficult economic
times. CSDC is a "market maker" and its cutting edge collaborations
to provide direct financing to public charter schools are setting
industry precedents just as its nationally recognized credit
enhancement program, the Building Block Fund, has done for charter
school facility needs over the past decade. CSDC became a
member of OFN to broaden its outreach and visibility to the CDFI
community and potential investors and funders, and to engage in
public policy impacting community economic development and the
charter school sector.
CSDC promotes more competition and choice, and increased
innovation and excellence, in K-12 education by assisting charter
schools with their financing and facility needs. As a
nonprofit lender and developer, CSDC, and its affiliate CSDC
Property Corporation, help charter school entrepreneurs finance,
build, expand and replicate great public charter schools. CSDC
offers high performing charter schools credit enhancements to
secure loans and leases through the Building Block Fund and
innovative loan products through CSDC Direct. CSDC Property
Corporation, the leading nonprofit developer of charter school
facilities in the country, builds-to-suit facilities, either for
lease with option-to-purchase, or on an outsourced, fee for
development services basis, through the Turnkey Development
Program.
For more information on CSDC's selection as a finalist for the
NEXT Award in the Financing Category, please contact Michelle
Liberati at (443) 561-1280. For more information on CSDC and
its programs and services visit www.csdc.org.
