Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) this week announced a strategic, five-year partnership with the MassMutual Foundation to launch the CDFI Innovation Initiative, a new effort designed to drive innovation, scale impact and build new infrastructure for the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) industry.

Officials said the initiative will be funded by a $25 million grant from the MassMutual Foundation.

OFN manages more than $1 billion in total assets and has a membership of 450 CDFIs, which include community development loan funds, credit unions, green banks, banks, minority depository institutions, and venture capital funds.

Its network of CDFIs works to ensure communities underserved by mainstream finance have access to affordable, responsible financial products and services, with a deep focus on serving rural, urban and Native communities across the United States.

“Community development finance began with an idea — that the conditions in our communities can be better,” OFN president and CEO Harold Pettigrew said in a news release. “With proven impact and gathered strength, that idea and the industry it founded have been called to address generational challenges. Meeting the moment ahead requires investing in innovation and infrastructure, accessible to small and large CDFIs alike.

“The MassMutual Foundation gets it, and they share our commitment to opportunity. We are thrilled to co-create systems, structures, and solutions with them, and invite other partners to join us in this work,” Pettigrew continued.

Officials explained the CDFI Innovation Initiative is structured to help CDFIs meet the moment ahead with three core pillars designed to drive new strategies:

—The creation of an Innovation Advisory Council, with investments in thought leadership and data-driven insights into scalable innovations.

—The establishment of an Innovation Center, an action tank that will take insights and promising solutions and seed them with capital and support.

—The launch of an Innovation Fund, a blended capital pool that will help take innovative and promising solutions to scale.

The CDFI Innovation Initiative will be at the center of OFN’s strategic direction, and these programs will reinforce the industry’s ability to foster financial health and resilience in low-income communities, expand entrepreneurship and affordable housing, and accelerate a just, green economy.

Officials said the MassMutual Foundation partnership and innovation initiative will enable OFN to realize its strategic goals by helping CDFIs and mission-driven lenders build infrastructure that allows the industry to eagerly meet the present moment and opportunities ahead.

“The MassMutual Foundation is honored to support this critically important work particularly at this pivotal moment for the CDFI industry,” said Dennis Duquette, MassMutual’s head of community responsibility and president and CEO of the MassMutual Foundation.

“Partnering with OFN to launch the CDFI Innovation Initiative reflects our shared commitment to further advance financial opportunity where it is truly needed through the proven, positive impact that CDFIs present to communities across the United States,” Duquette went on to say.