I’m delighted to say that we feature on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website today with an article responding to the New Economics Foundation’s new report, I.O.U.K. Some interesting comments have been posted in response to the article – some readers appear to have missed the point of what the CDFI sector is about. It would be great to see some comments from CDFIs setting them straight!
The article is one of the first fruits of our new campaign, through which we aim to deliver a consistent level of press coverage for the CDFI sector over the coming months. We will also shortly be consulting our members and key stakeholders on an Action Plan for moving the CDFI sector forward, which will be a key lobbying tool for the campaign. And watch out for our new social networking website, which we’ll be launching over the next week to help you share your success stories and feed in to the campaign.
I met with the Regional Development Agencies SME Finance Network last week to update them on sector developments and to hear how CDFIs might be included in their future plans. It was clear that RDAs understand the importance of CDFIs but that more work needs to be done to create consistency of approach and engagement. This is one of the aims of our campaign. We certainly look forward to working more closely with all RDAs in the future.
I caught up with a former colleague of mine, Brian Whittaker of the Lankelly Chase Foundation (which has just published new guidelines on its grant making policy, available here). The Foundation has long been a supporter of the CDFI sector and the drive to develop different financial instruments for the social economy. From our discussion, it was clear that many foundations face challenging times, along with the rest of us. As income from investments shrinks, so does the pot for grant making, at a time when it is needed most. There are no easy answers. In fact, Brian and I came to the conclusion that nothing will ever be quite the same again.
That CDFIs fill in for market failure was proved by Andrew Aspital of Charity Bank last week. I bumped into him in Ramsgate station on Thursday morning after the whole of the train system had come to a halt due to adverse weather conditions (the wrong kind of ice, apparently). I explained I had to get into London for the RDA/BERR meeting and he, recognising the urgency of the situation, gave me a lift to North Greenwich from where I caught the tube to Westminster. My hero! Thanks so much, Andrew.
On the homefront:
I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. Warily, because I treat multi award winning films with caution as they rarely live up to expectations. This one did however. It was a great film which said a lot about learning and knowledge. Hope that doesn’t put you off though. Go see it.