MAF selected to be part of CFSI's new Financial Capability Innovation Fund

I am pleased to share with you some wonderful news! The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) selected MAF as one of five organizations from a highly competitive process to be a part of the new Financial Capability Innovation Fund!

After a rigorous and extensive national selection process, CFSI awarded MAF a $250,000 grant to support MAF’s replication of its highly successful Cestas Populares - Peer Lending Circles. Over the next two years, MAF will work in partnership with the San Francisco Office for Financial Empowerment (OFE) and the San Francisco State University’s Cesar Chavez Institute to replicate lending circles to five low-income communities in San Francisco. The expansion will amplify our impact by helping low-income individuals improve their financial capability, build credit histories, and begin leveraging credit to achieve their long-term financial goals.

In 2008, MAF piloted the Cestas Populares program in the Mission District, pioneering lending circles as a model for immigrant financial integration. In just over two years, our organization formed 32 peer lending circles and managed a loan portfolio of $500,000, derived from 279 loans, with a default rate of zero. As a result, our participants raised their credit scores by an average of 49 points, and cumulatively were able to avoid paying an estimated $200,000 in loan fees and interest charges.

MAF has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of lending circles in the Mission. With CFSI’s investment, we will begin answering the question: Can our approach work in other communities?

In the coming months, we look forward to updating you on our forward momentum. As always, I remain very appreciative of your support and involvement with MAF.