from Toby Rittner, President & CEO
CDFA proudly recognized Arthur Cohen, Partner at the New York City offices of Hawkins Delafield & Wood and longtime CDFA general counsel, as the recipient of this year's distinguished CDFA Lifetime Achievement Award. Arthur was presented with this honor during CDFA's 2016 National Development Finance Summit in November in New Orleans, LA. Congrats Arthur!

from Cayla Adams, Director of Education
CDFA would like to congratulate the newest members of the Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) Program. Our newest DFCP graduates are Sandra Jernudd, Chad Odom, Ben Townsend, Darla Garrett, Jennifer Kanalos, Michele O'Connor, and Antranette Forbes. CDFA is excited to see the great work that these new graduates will produce in the coming year.

from Kimberly Deardurff, Director of Development
This year, 133 public and private institutions were part of the CDFA Sponsor program, representing the top leaders and best institutions in our industry. The National Sponsor drive for 2017 is well underway and is shaping up to be an even stronger year.

from Tim Fisher, Legislative & Federal Affairs Coordinator
CDFA was thrilled to announce in October that Senators Brown (D-OH) and Perdue (R-GA) introduced the Modernizing American Manufacturing Bonds Act (MAMBA) in the U.S. Senate (S. 3416). CDFA worked with Senators Brown and Perdue over the past year to advocate for MAMBA. S. 3416 and its companion bill in the House (H.R. 2890) represent a comprehensive reform package that will modernize and revolutionize IDBs.

from Katie Kramer, Vice President
CDFA worked with USDA Rural Development to produce the Community Facilities Infrastructure Toolkit, a guide that helps organizations and community leaders better understand the complex process that is required to successfully develop and construct a new facility in America's small towns and rural areas. As part of this work, CDFA and the USDA hosted webinars and public-private partnership meetings across the country to provide education and networking on the Community Facilities program.

from Candace Frank, Membership Coordinator
CDFA continues to grow, welcoming 100 new members in 2016. CDFA's membership total has now reached 480 public and private organizations from across the country. CDFA greatly appreciates the support of its members each and every year.

from Katie Kramer, Vice President
CDFA and The Bank of New York Mellon continued the popular monthly webcast series this year with thousands of people participating. Topics covered include the muni market, disaster resiliency, post election development finance landscape, locavesting, immigrant and refugee financing, high impact development finance agencies, and more. All webcasts are archived on the CDFA website for long term viewing.

from Emily Moser, Program Manager
2016 was a successful year for the CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance Program, culminating in four Project Response Team site visits. CDFA staff and technical assistance partners traveled to the City of New Bern (NC), Englewood (IL), Lee (MA), and Bedford Heights (OH), to visit brownfield redevelopment sites, meet with local stakeholders, and provide financing recommendations. Each community receives a Roadmap to Redevelopment report outlining the team's recommendations for financing.

from Toby Rittner, President & CEO
CDFA has released its much anticipated Administration Transition Paper titled Unlocking Development Finance Capital in the United States to Create Jobs & Increase Private Investment. The paper includes twenty-three key recommendations for the next Administration to address and remove barriers to capital access to support and maximize America's investment in infrastructure, energy, small business, urban communities, rural development and agriculture. The paper has been circulated to over 30,000 development finance professionals and throughout Congress and the incoming transition team.

from Pete Mathews, Manager of Research & Resources
The Energy Investment Partnerships Webinar Series was designed specifically for states and stakeholders working to further their renewable energy and energy efficiency goals. The webinar series provided research-based education on EIPs and how development finance agencies, public entities, foundations, energy organizations, and the financing community can work together to achieve greater program and project success to drive clean energy deployment.

from Kimberly Deardurff, Director of Development
CDFA held this year's National Development Finance Summit in New Orleans, LA and was joined by hundreds of development finance professionals to discuss topics of critical importance to the industry. The 2017 CDFA National Development Finance Summit will be held in Atlanta, GA. Dates will be announced soon!

from Katie Williams, Manager of State Programs Outreach
The CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance Program collaborated with the 2016 Florida Financing Roundtable. During this conference, the city of Palmetto, FL presented their brownfields redevelopment plans to financing professionals and brownfields project experts and received free technical assistance related to the redevelopment and financing of their brownfields projects.

from Cayla Adams, Director of Education
This year CDFA introduced a new specialized course on incentives and how they can be used effectively and responsibly. CDFA welcomed Ellen Harpel, founder of Smart Incentives, as course advisor for this newest course.

from Averi Cragel, Manager of State Programs Outreach
In 2016, CDFA launched the Minnesota Financing Roundtable in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the Economic Development Association of Minnesota. In August we hosted our first roundtable conference in the state, welcoming nearly 100 participants. The interest and support from practitioners in the state is the basis for our decision to host CDFA Summer School in Minneapolis in 2017.

from Toby Rittner, President & CEO
CDFA and NCOSAFP have partnered to raise awareness within the development finance and agricultural industries of the agricultural finance programs available around the country. As part of this partnership, CDFA will focus on increasing development finance education and resources for NCOSAFP and will work to advance legislative, resource and awareness efforts related to food and agriculture finance nationally.

from Katie Williams, Manager of State Programs Outreach
Another successful year for CDFA's State Financing Roundtables. In 2016, the total number of active Roundtables grew to 24. Six roundtables were added to advance development finance concerns and interests across the United States: North Carolina, Maryland, Minnesota, Louisiana, Virginia and Oklahoma/Kansas.

from Thomas Leonard, CDFA Graduate Intern
Continuing to broaden their reach, CDFA and NCOSAFP started focusing on new developments in the food and agriculture finance space. Stay up to date with these developments by subscribing to the new Food and Agriculture Finance Newsletter.

from Blake Williams, Program Coordinator
CDFA was excited to launch a new website for the Brownfields Technical Assistance Program in 2016. View dozens of community projects that have participated in the Brownfields Project Marketplace and check out our Brownfields Financing Toolkit for the best brownfield financing resources and case studies pertaining to Bonds, Tax Credits, Tax Increment Financing, and more!

from Cayla Adams, Director of Education
This year, CDFA offered the Intro TIF Course live in Dallas where participants attended multiple tours of TIF districts along the DART light-rail in the city. Attendees were able to see the practical application of TIF and how the City of Dallas has utilized it creatively to support development in multiple parts of their city.

from Pete Mathews, Manager of Research & Resources
The CDFA Annual Volume Cap Report: An Analysis of 2015 Private Activity Bond & Volume Cap Trends provides the most complete data for the use of volume cap and issuance of cap-subject private activity bonds nationwide.