CDFA Membership continues to cover a wide network of over 500 members in the United States and countries worldwide. Our members include individuals residing in all 50 states and members from Guam, Canada, Mexico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. CDFA is thankful for our diverse directory of members and their continued support. We invite you to join us today!

CDFA was excited to have 270 attendees at this year's National Summit in Baltimore, MD! We gathered for three action-packed days, filled with two CDFA courses, dozens of breakout sessions, fantastic guest speakers, and keynote speaker Jessica Milano, Chief Program Officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

CDFA would like to express our sincere gratitude to our 22 National Sponsors and 8 National Summit Sponsors for their generous support this year. Their commitment and partnership are crucial in enabling us to achieve our mission, and we are honored to collaborate with them. Each of these organizations plays a vital role in advancing the development finance community by strengthening CDFA's education, advocacy, research, resources, and network. We look forward to continuing our partnership with them in the future.

The CDFA Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of six new members to its Board of Directors in 2024: Ruben Alonso (CEO, Alt Cap), Richard Frampton (Retired EVP, Illinois Finance Authority), Brenda Guess (Assistant Secretary, Louisiana Economic Development), Janet Perez Shensky (Senior Managing Director, Lendistry), Julia Phipps (Director of Due Diligence, CNote), and Michael O'Donnell (Executive Director, Prairie Rose Development Corporation). With exciting plans to expand its services, the Foundation is poised for an even greater impact! Support their work with a tax-deductible donation at cdfafoundation.org.

The CDFA team traveled coast to coast to participate in various conferences. Fawn Zimmerman spoke at the North Central USDA Regional Food Business Center's Summit in Fargo, ND, and attended the USDA's 2501 Program and Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Project Director's Meeting in Charlotte, NC. Angela Blatt attended the Great Lakes Lenders Conference in Columbus, OH, as a panelist for the Food Business Incubation session, the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum in Denver, CO, and the Summit of Angel Investing in Columbus, OH.

The 2024 CDFA Equitable Lending Learning Series, co-hosted by Lendistry and The Center by Lendistry, guides development finance professionals in adopting equitable lending practices and improving access to affordable capital for underserved borrowers. The sessions featured experts from development finance agencies, CDFIs, and small business finance organizations, combining historical insights with actionable strategies. This series highlighted innovative approaches to equitable lending, sharing strategies, best practices, and case studies to create inclusive finance programs and promote fairness in lending.

CDFA is grateful for the opportunity to travel to San Juan Puerto Rico this Fall. In this era of Zoom meetings, we had the chance to connect in person with several new organizations. Through our open and candid discussions, we learned about the most critical development finance issues affecting this region of the United States. We are truly thankful to these organizations for their time and insight! As we look ahead to 2025, we are excited to continue broadening our education and advocacy in this area as we bring our network of professionals to Puerto Rico for our National Summit, October 22-24.

CDFA partnered with the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to research development finance tools that can strengthen the food system in Minnesota and the six-county region of the San Luis Valley in Colorado. CDFA produced Local Food Finance Landscape Maps to highlight possible financing resources that can be integrated with local efforts to unlock capital for food and agriculture-related businesses, projects, and infrastructure.

CDFA enjoyed honoring three more development finance professionals this year for their outstanding contributions to the industry: Chris Burnham, President of the Development Finance Authority of Summit County; John Saris, former Finance Manager at Business Oregon and now Credit Portfolio Manager for Development Capital Networks; and Holly Hunt, Program Manager for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

CDFA was honored to host the 2024 class of the Caren S. Franzini Fellowship - Victoria Benson with Community Ventures Corporation, Charity Karanja with Butler Snow LLP, Brooke Kessler with New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and Kay Simmons with Maryland Department of Commerce. This year's class produced a toolkit for developers highlighting their research on financing tools and incentives in the "missing middle" housing sector.

CDFA is grateful for Bricker Graydon's generous support of this important webinar series on how targeted tools can revitalize communities. Experts from across the development finance industry presented key targeted tools - such as tax increment financing (TIF), property-assessed clean energy (PACE), and special assessment districts. We are thankful to Bricker Graydon LLP for partnering with CDFA and for their engaging speakers at every session!

CDFA hosted five webinars this year on advancing local food systems through finance. Featured discussions demonstrated how businesses and projects within the food system can be connected to development finance tools, such as bonds, tax increment finance, tax credits, and revolving loan funds, to create equitable local and regional food systems. Recorded webinars are available to view on the CDFA website.

This year, CDFA offered education, training, and networking opportunities nationwide. Staff visited Little Falls, MN, and Santa Fe, NM, to support the CDFA-NASDA Foundation's Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Access to Capital Program. They co-hosted the Growing Diverse Housing Developers Fellowship's in-person convening in South Florida. They also traveled to Yuma, AZ, as part of the USDA Community Facilities Technical Assistance Program for Tribal Governments. Additionally, CDFA staff provided development finance advisory services in San Bernardino, CA; Memphis, TN; Louisville, KY; Dallas, TX; and Burlington, VT.

CDFA has welcomed thirteen new graduates to the prestigious Development Finance Certified Professional (DFCP) Program in 2024. Congratulations to Tammi Alexander, Zeyu Zhang, Shilvosky Buffaloe, Amanda Frazier, Julie Behrens, Rebecca Rowe, Stacy Kilroy, Austin Stone, Rich Rodriguez, Joe Lohman, Madeline Bouton, Leslee Rivarola, and Julia Fahrmann. Congratulations on this momentous achievement!

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to present a dynamic session on disaster recovery funding at this year's National Development Finance Summit. With the support of the U.S. Treasury and our dedicated partners, we explored innovative funding solutions aimed at helping communities rebuild and recover after disasters. Attendees gained valuable insights on leveraging resources like CDBG, SSBCI, and Disaster Bonds to support resilient recovery efforts. We thank all those who joined us for this important conversation and look forward to continuing the work together to strengthen communities in times of need.

We were grateful to launch the 2024 SSBCI Learning Series, providing valuable insights into the complexities of SSBCI capital and technical assistance programs. This year's sessions focused on reaching underserved businesses, addressing funding gaps, and maximizing program impact. Experts and practitioners shared their expertise on key topics, including State and Tribal Capital Program implementation, marketing strategies, and leveraging SSBCI for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Thanks to the support of our partners and participants, the series was a truly valuable learning experience for all involved.

We were excited to offer seven of CDFA's most popular training courses this year during Summer School! Attendees learned about the fundamentals of development finance, bonds, energy and water, PACE, housing, brownfield, and P3 finance. Thank you to our attendees, speakers, moderators, and staff who made this year's event a success.

CDFA is grateful to all those at BNY who helped support this valuable programming throughout the year. Our long-standing partnership, combined with our generous speakers from a variety of organizations, enabled us to provide niche bond financing education to our vast network, at no additional cost to the individual member. With BNY's collaboration, these webcasts are expertly co-moderated by some of the most trusted professionals in bond financing.

The Project Manager Supervisor ("PM Supervisor") supervises a team of Project Managers that operate within the Multifamily Energy Efficiency and Housing Affordability (MEEHA) programs. The PM Supervisor organizes, coordinates, and manages the execution of program initiatives when moving projects through the MEEHA program funding process. The PM Supervisor uses their technical expertise in building construction, energy diagnostic and modeling methodologies, to successfully train and manage a team of Project Managers, and review the work completed by Project Managers including approving funding requests, product specifications, payment requests, cost-benefit analysis, and work progression inspections.