NCN works to strengthen the Native CDFI industry by increasing the voice of Native CDFIs in national policy dialogues and sharing resources that grow the knowledge and skills of our members. One of the ways we do this is by offering skill-building workshops and in-depth trainings on leadership and practice topics of importance to Native CDFIs.

The NCN Institute Training Series is an interactive collection of workshops for Native CDFI leaders and team members who wish to sharpen their skills and strategies. The 2023 series of skill-building workshops was developed based on feedback from our Annual Members Survey that let us know what skill sets Native CDFI Leaders need and want.

Registrations are now open for the 2023 NCN Institute Training Series! See the training calendar below for a list of workshop topics that will be offered. Each workshop will be held via Zoom from 2:00pm – 4:00pm (eastern time).

May 3, 2023

Caleb Selby
Selby Consulting

Contextualizing Capitalization Planning

In this session, we will learn about why capitalization planning is an important practice for Native CDFIs, the current fundraising landscape and its effect on Native CDFIs, what a standard Native CDFI capitalization plan looks like, and how it can be used. Bring questions!
 
Key objectives:

  1. Understand how Native CDFI sustainability can be baked into a capitalization plan.
  2. Understand the basic structure of a standard capitalization plan and why that structure is important.
  3. Understand common funders for Native CDFIs.

May 17, 2023

Caleb Selby
Selby Consulting

Capitalization Planning, Workshopping, & Best Practices

In this session, we will go over an example capitalization plan section by section, how it works with other important planning tools, and how to make sure your plan is actively used. Bring questions!
 
Key objectives:

  1. Understand how lending projections and capitalization projections often must go hand in hand.
  2. Understand how some of the data points in a capitalization plan were developed.
  3. Understand best practices to ensure a capitalization plan is actively used.

June 21, 2023

Jack Northrup
New England Market Research

Priming the Loan Pipeline

Developing a pipeline for loans is key for predicting cash flows and CDFI growth. However, borrower credit issues can get in the way of the application to loan closing timeline. This training will identify and address those key stumbling blocks and suggest remedies so that a borrower comes prepared and the CDFI can more accurately predict deployment of loan funds. 
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Understand the importance of developing a pipeline for loans.
  2. Identify of the key stumbling blocks for clients wishing to enter the pipeline.
  3. Develop a target market strategy for pipeline development.

July 12, 2023

Lisa Wagner & Blaine Rasmuson
Bluestem Consulting

Understanding the new Native CDFI Certification Requirements

This workshop is designed for aspiring and emerging (not-yet certified) Native CDFIs. Learn about the new Native CDFI Certification requirements, what they are, and related reporting requirements.
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Learn about the new annual CDEFI Fund certification requirements for emerging Native CDFIs.
  2. Understand actions your organization will need to take to meet new certification requirements.
  3. Learn about ongoing reporting requirements related to the new certification rules.

July 13, 2023

Lisa Wagner & Blaine Rasmuson
Bluestem Consulting

Understanding and Complying with the new Native CDFI Re-Certification Requirements

This training is designed for Native CDFIs that are already certified. Learn about the new Native CDFI Re-Certification requirements, what they are, when existing CDFIs must be in compliance and how the changes impact reporting requirements.
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Learn about the new annual CDFI Fund e-certification requirements for certified Native CDFIs.
  2. Understand the timeline for complying with new certification requirements.
  3. Understand the changes in ACER and other related reporting requirements.

August 16, 2023

Jack Northrup
New England Market Research

Financial Systems and Dashboards

CDFI financial systems that lead to understandable metrics are not only complicated, they are constantly changing. Boards and management need top level information in a visual format with objectives placed side by side with CDFI performance. This is where dashboards come in.  Dashboards provide quick, ongoing snapshots for decision makers so they can adapt to changes in the nonprofit environment. They allow the board and management to decide on key objectives of the organization, (e.g., deployment, delinquency, borrowing capacity) then provide a quick reference as to how the CDFI is tracking against the mission.
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Introduce the various types of financial systems CDFIs use.
  2. Why and how dashboards help achieve organizational objectives.
  3. Develop a useful, customized dashboard for your CDFI with Excel and visual templates.

September 13, 2023

Jack Northrup
New England Market Research

Preparing for the Audit

Audits provide the suppliers of CDFI loan and grant monies with an historic report card of the organization’s progress and management’s competence in achieving self-sufficiency. Yet, many auditors do not understand the nature of our business and need to be educated.  Audit preparation is key so that your organization gets a clean bill of health and capital suppliers can internally rate the risk of lending/granting funds to your CDFI. This training will address these issues.
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Understanding the reasons why audits matter.
  2. Demonstrate good and bad audit practices to include examples of types of CDFI audits.
  3. Identify requirements of the audit firm, how to select a firm, and how to head off audit “findings” before they are written.

October 4, 2023

Kristen Wagner
Native CDFI Network

Preparing for your Strategic Planning Process

The Native CDFI industry is faced with growing demand for capital along with increased opportunities for investment. An efficient, effective strategic planning process can help Native CDFI Leaders navigate these trends, avoid uncertainty, make smarter strategic goals, and achieve them. This workshop is designed for Native CDFI Directors and their Board Chairs to build a planning process that will take their organizations to the next level.
 
Key Objectives:

  1. Learn about tools and strategies to assess your organization’s success and challenges and how to utilize that information for external marketing.
  2. Set clearly defined goals for the growth and success of your organization.
  3. Outline a strategy to achieve strategic goals over 1-3 years.

Meet Our Trainers

Jack Northrup
New England Market Research

Learn More

Blaine Rasmuson
Bluestem Consulting

Learn More

Caleb Selby
Selby Consulting

Learn More

Kristen Wagner
Native CDFI Network

Learn More

Lisa Wagner
Bluestem Consulting

Learn More

Examples of Previous NCN Institute Programs include:

Increasing Your Visibility through Storytelling. In 2021, NCN worked with Harvard Professor, Marshall Ganz, an expert in labor organizing and leadership, to offer 23 hours of training to 15 NCN members. In this training series, Native CDFI leaders gathered each weekend for one month to learn how they could create meaningful change by telling their stories.

NCN Summer Institute 2022. This Summer Series included three training sessions from June – August 2022 covering the topics of small business underwriting, advanced cash flow analysis, loan product pricing and market choice. Jack Northrup, of New England Market Research, a long-time partner with NCN, provide energizing, skill-building sessions for 22 NCN members followed by one-on-one technical assistance to support their implementation of these new skills and knowledge.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on the next training event!

Subscribe

Jack Northrup

New England Market Research

Jack Northrup of New England Market Research, Inc. has worked with companies performing qualitative and quantitative research on issues related to market access. Since, 1997 he has worked with over 250 companies conducting primary and secondary research. The main focus is quantitative analysis around issues of marketing, branding and consumer perception and financial management. Additionally, he conducts customer surveys and focus groups for clients on issues of demographics, pricing and attitudes/behaviors.

Jack developed and taught online small business training for the US Dept. of Treasury CDFI Fund and has taught business development at the University of Vermont and Southern New Hampshire University, in class and online.  He has developed and taught dozens of webinars and client trainings. He has a BS and MSc from New Hampshire College and an MBA from Dartmouth College.

Blaine Rasmuson

Bluestem Consulting

As a consultant, Blaine Rasmuson serves as a Loan Officer for the intermediary lending arm of NCN. Mr. Rasmuson helps our members through the loan process and ensures that NCN’s lending standards are of the highest caliber.

Rasmuson graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in Finance. Before entering the CDFI industry, Mr. Rasmuson worked as a Registered Investment Advisor and as a Finance Manager. His experience in the finance industry will serve NCN as its lending capacity grows.

Caleb Selby

Selby Consulting

Caleb entered the Native CDFI industry in 2015 at Oweesta Corporation. He then became a consultant as he returned to school for a B.S. in General Mathematics. Currently, Mr. Selby is the owner of Selby Consulting, a consulting firm offering grant writing, financial analysis, capitalization planning, programmatic analysis, and other technical assistance to over 20 Native CDFIs each year. Mr. Selby is passionate about assisting and enjoys working with Native CDFIs. In his free time, Caleb enjoys being outdoors.

Kristen Wagner

Native CDFI Network

Kristen Wagner serves as the Native CDFI Network’s National Program Director. In this role, Wagner manages NCN grant funded programs, Membership Programs, and oversees the design and delivery of capacity-building supports to NCN members. Dr. Wagner built her 25-year career with a commitment to building more equitable economies in Native communities across the country and Indigenous communities globally.

In addition, she spent the past 15 years in classroom settings, individual mentoring relationships, and as a consultant providing organizational management support and training to asset-building practitioners and advocates to support economic equity in their workplaces, community decision-making processes, and broader institutional systems. Through these experiences, Dr. Wagner understands the day-to-day experiences and challenges organizations face delivering asset-building programs in Indian Country.

Wagner holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Dakota and a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Her work has taken the form of research, program design and implementation, policy advocacy, and leadership training.

Lisa Wagner

Bluestem Consulting

Lisa Wagner is the owner of Bluestem Consulting, Inc. She is a community development consultant and trainer based in Buffalo, Wyoming.  Lisa has worked in small business and economic development for 26 years and in the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) industry for 22 years. Over the last 14 years, Lisa has worked with CDFIs across the nation as a consultant and trainer. Her work has focused on providing capacity building services including CDFI certification and application support, board development, financial projections and analysis, sustainability and strategic planning, business planning, and capitalization planning. She has served as a trainer and facilitator for national, regional and local events in the CDFI arena. Lisa has taught lending courses for NeighborWorks America at their quarterly National Training Institutes. She has also served as facilitator for several CDFI Fund collaborative training initiatives through First Nations Oweesta and Opportunity Finance Network. She was the founding Executive Director of the Wind River Development Fund, a successful Native CDFI on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, from 2001 until 2009. During her tenure as Executive Director, WRDF received several national and regional awards. In 2009, Lisa was recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the Wyoming Financial Services Champion of the year.  Lisa has served on the board of directors of both non-profit and for-profit organizations, including sitting on the loan committee of a state-wide loan fund. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas.