Our 2023 Member Day is for everyone working in community development finance to learn, share best practice, and find new ways to boost access to finance for people, businesses and social enterprises.
It has been designed based on members’ needs and requests and includes practical workshops and peer-to-peer support to learn from and with others tackling similar issues.
The programme features 12 comprehensive workshops (delegates can each attend three during the day). Read more about the workshop leaders and speakers below.
We are grateful to Lloyds Bank, Triodos Bank, Unity Trust Bank, BrightOffice, HAWQ, Hope Macy, Maximus, Singlify and Soar for their support of the member day.
BOOKING FOR THE MEMBER DAY IS NOW CLOSED
Workshops Round 1 (10:30 – 11:25):
Workshop 1A: Pitching investors: how to use data and decks to make the most powerful case
This session is relevant to teams across all CDFI-lending sectors.
How investor pitches can be most effective at securing investment, including:
- What are key challenges in investment raising?
- How do I start to develop my investor pitch deck?
- What data do CDFIs need to provide to investors to make a compelling case for investment?
Workshop outcomes: understand how to develop pitches and make a powerful investment case.
Speakers: Harry Davies (Ceniarth), Chris Sood-Nicholls (Lloyds Banking Group). Facilitator: Tej Dhami (The Change Coefficient).
Workshop 1B: Net Zero: how to measure the right data and use it effectively.
This session is relevant to teams across all CDFI-lending sectors.
CDFIs, customers, the BBB, and investors are all increasingly aware of the imperative to keep up to speed with the transition towards a Net Zero economy. Building on previous webinars and resources, this session will provide practical support to members on developing their Net Zero plans.
Workshop outcomes: You will understand:
- What data do you need to measure within your business?
- Where can you find this information?
- How do you use this data to understand your carbon footprint and understand your progress against government, regulatory and industry expectations on Net Zero?
Speakers: Emma Lower (Lendology), Tyler Leyland Jones (FutureLeap). Facilitator: Simon Crichton (Triodos).
Workshop 1C: Levering technology to optimise back-end systems for enterprise and social enterprise lenders:
This workshop will explore how to use technology to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve compliance and reporting for enterprise lenders.
This workshop is relevant to enterprise and social enterprise lenders.
Workshop outcomes: the session will offer guidance on identifying key priorities where tech can most benefit business, developing an accurate and useful specification to speak to those needs, and key things to look out for when selecting vendors.
Speakers: Maarten Rooney (Singlify), Carl Dixon (BrightOffice), Andrew Duncan (Soar). Facilitator: Brendan Gilmore (BPG Consulting).
Workshop 1D: Moving from an effective to a compelling impact story for personal lending
This session will focus on support for personal lending CDFIs on how impact measurement is developing, and the best ways to capture the impact of your organisation and share with stakeholders. Specifically:
- What is needed to shift from outputs to outcomes and successfully capture impact data?
- How do you evidence the interrelated social, economic, environmental and community impacts in both the short-term and long-term?
Workshop outcomes: The session is interactive, discussing solutions for improving impact measurement within personal lending CDFIs.
Facilitator: Heidi Fisher.
Workshops Round 2 (11:50 – 12:45):
Workshop 2A: Expanding investment into CDFIs: lessons from innovative approaches
This session is relevant to teams across all CDFI-lending sectors.
It will explore examples of CDFI investment and funding generated from a diverse variety of sources and the lessons learned.
Workshop outcomes: Members will learn how they might explore innovative approaches to how and where they might access capital.
Speakers: Karen Davies (Purple Shoots), Tim Stumpff (investor), Steve Walker (ART Business Loans), Michael Russell (BLOCK), Hannan Ali (City Bridge Foundation), Alex Christopoulos (Aviva Foundation).
Workshop 2B: How to get your MP to become your biggest champion
Our Member day coincides with the Autumn budget, and we are fast heading towards a general election.
This workshop will cover why it is important and beneficial to engage with your local MP, practical tips to do so, and how to ensure the profile of CDFIs and the impacts they have in local communities are properly recognised in the run up to the next general election.
This session is relevant to teams across all CDFI-lending sectors.
Workshop outcomes: understand how to build relationships with politicians and lever these to support your CDFI.
Facilitator: Claire Mathys.
Workshop 2C: Improving customer journeys in personal lending with new technology.
For teams in personal lending CDFIs.
This will explore ways that CDFIs can harness technology to improve the customer journey, for example via apps development, new approaches to debt repayment, and better user experience.
Speakers: Rachael Magowan (Moneyline), Solomon Mela (Adage Credit), Sam Manning (Hope Macy). Facilitator: Tim Rooney (Salad Money).
Workshop 2D: Moving from an effective to a compelling impact story for enterprise and social enterprise lending
This session will focus on support for enterprise (and social enterprise) lending CDFIs on how impact measurement is developing, and the best ways to capture the impact of your organisation and share with stakeholders. Specifically:
- What is needed to shift from outputs to outcomes and successfully capture impact data?
- How do you evidence the interrelated social, economic, environmental and community impacts in both the short-term and long-term?
Workshop outcomes: The session is interactive, discussing solutions for improving impact measurement within enterprise and social enterprise CDFIs.
Facilitator: Heidi Fisher.
Workshops Round 3 (13:45 – 14:40):
Workshop 3A: How to acquire, retain and even wave goodbye to relevant customers for personal lending
To make their businesses more sustainable, CDFIs should consider dynamics including channels for customer acquisition and the ratio of new to existing customers. This session will cover:
- What we have learned from initial unit economics about personal lenders’ strategies for sustainability and what more analysis needs to be done
- Clarifying customer strategy for better sustainability (e.g. how does the strategy and customer base change strategy across volume acquisition via aggregators vs. lower volume high quality referral)
- How partnerships (e.g. with social housing, credit unions, other signposting organisations) can be strengthened to support the personal lending sector
Workshop outcomes: This workshop is designed for personal lending CDFIs and will cover customer acquisition, retention and referral.
Speakers: Neil Kadagathur (CreditSpring), Chris Connor (Illegal Money Lending Team). Facilitator: Shiona Crichton (Moneyline).
Workshop 3B: Improving bank referrals for enterprise lenders
It is broadly acknowledged that the current system of referrals from Banks to CDFIs does not work as well as it should, which limits the potential number of customers that CDFIs might support. How can we get banking and credit broking referrals to work better?
Workshop outcomes: To agree key actions participants in enterprise lending CDFIs will implement to help address this issue.
Speakers: Roxanne Goodman (Female Founder Finance), Norman Chambers (NACFB).
Workshop 3C: Developing fruitful partnerships and collaborations in social enterprise lending
This session will explore how further developing partnerships between social enterprise lending CDFIs and the public, private and social enterprise sectors can support the growth of the social enterprise sector economy.
Speakers: Vicki Papworth (NatWest Social and Community Capital), Ben Tiplady (Big Issue Invest), Chris Jamieson (SIS), Dave Thornett (Key Fund), TBC (Resonance). Facilitator: Jamie Veitch.
Workshop 3D: What to expect in the year ahead and how to prepare so your CDFI can thrive
Economists and analysts will explain what they expect may affect the markets we serve and give their views on dynamics CDFIs should prepare for over the coming 12 months.
This session is relevant to teams across all CDFI-lending sectors.
Speaker: Rob Fontana-Reval (WPI Economics).
Delegate fees are £149+VAT for a single delegate ticket, and £99+VAT for each additional ticket for your organisation.
Please email if you wish to book five or more places for your organisation.
More about the Member Day.
Our thanks to our sponsors for their support of the member day:
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank is committed to supporting British business. Our ambition is to be a partner in the regeneration of the UK’s regions, stimulating increased investment to generate economic growth, working with business leaders and local and regional government to help create thriving communities.
We want to unlock lending to local communities via CDFIs, helping to support businesses through inclusive funding as well as enabling the CDFI sector to scale.
Triodos Bank
Triodos Bank UK provides specialist, sustainable finance for businesses and organisations.
We believe banking can be a catalyst for making greater social and environmental impact and we can help support more organisations to make positive change.
Triodos has a strong track record of supporting accredited CDFIs.
Unity Trust Bank
Unity Trust Bank is an award-winning commercial bank that uses banking to improve the lives of UK communities.
For nearly 40 years, we have helped businesses and organisations to prosper and address social, economic and environmental needs.
We offer day-to-day banking services and aim to become the bank of choice for all socially-minded organisations.
BrightOffice (ClearCourse Business Services Ltd T/A BrightOffice)
BrightOffice provides bespoke cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software for commercial and consumer lenders and commercial finance brokers, integrations with market leading entities and includes embedded payments functionality.
Built by industry experts with a deep understanding of loan case processes, we have the knowledge and experience to create fully custom systems that streamline business processes, boost customer engagement and improve efficiencies.
HAWQ
We help responsible organisations to be responsible employers. We support both individuals and organisations to optimise their physical & mental wellbeing, focusing on five key pillars of health: Body, Mind, Movement, Nutrition & Sleep.
We start by calculating a health score for each individual & making key recommendations for improvement. We then provide coaching, the tools & the strategy to enable everyone to make practical, sustainable changes & to enhance their scores over time together as a community. We help people live better for longer.
Maximus
Maximus is a global provider of critical services to government and the private sector, supporting 75 million customers each year.
Through our innovative CX solutions for the financial sector, we reconcile human intelligence with technology to support customers in financial hardship – helping organisations meet their Consumer Duty obligations.
www.maximusuk.co.uk/cx-consumerduty
Singlify
Singlify provides technology that empowers Inclusive Finance Providers to dramatically change access to financial support for underserved communities. We do this by providing an end-to-end loan management application for Inclusive Finance providers built on the Salesforce platform.
Singlify software has been consistently proven to help CDFIs, MFIs and credit unions improve efficiency, reduce costs, and grow rapidly. We see ourselves as the long-term digital transformation partner for Inclusive Finance Providers. We benefit from an excellent understanding of CDFI, MFI and credit union operations and first-hand experience of how best to introduce new technology to our customers.
Soar
Soar delivers an unparalleled banking and back-office experience with our Soar Banking Platform. Specialising in both consumer and commercial lending, we offer a complete suite of automated loan servicing, accounting, and integrated payment services, including automatic transaction reconciliations. Our platform is your go-to solution for credit underwriting, seamless customer management, and comprehensive financial oversight, all available 24/7. Boasting a raft of 3rd party integrations, our platform features advanced capabilities like digital messaging, embedded payments, credit checks, KYC and open banking. We’re resetting the standard for modern, fair finance.
BOOKING FOR THE MEMBER DAY IS NOW CLOSED