Short Talk 2B: From Risk to Reward: A CDFI’s Approach to Risk in Lending
Session Designer
John Berdes, Craft3
Session Description
In a time when most traditional financial institutions are restricting their lending practices, Enterprise Cascadia manages a loan portfolio of $140 million, and these loans primarily go to individuals and organizations that would not be eligible for a loan from a bank. The community development financial institution has a loan delinquency rate of less than 2.5 percent results unheard of in today’s recession. By embracing risk in lending, Enterprise Cascadia has been able to provide much-needed financing to businesses and nonprofits that in turn help the CDFI advance its mission to create economic equity and a healthy environment in rural and urban communities in Oregon and Washington. John Berdes, president and CEO, will share the organization’s philosophy behind lending, how they assess impact, and what grantmakers can learn from this model.
Speakers
![[photo]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dd0c1d8da288ca1d90d305c8aee6a276.png?d=https://proposalspace.com/images/no_photo.png&r=PG&s=50 "John Berdes, Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia")
John Berdes, Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia
Title
President & CEO
Speaker Biography
John Berdes is president and CEO of Craft3, formerly known as Enterprise Cascadia. Prior to joining the ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia team in 1995, Berdes held two different positions with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), first as program director for Puget Sound operations, and subsequently as senior program director for Field Strategies. Before that time, Berdes was founding executive director of Capitol Hill Housing, a community development corporation serving a central city neighborhood of Seattle, WA. Berdes is a graduate of Oberlin College and resides in Astoria, OR.