In this interview, Jina Paik, Vice President, Learning & Impact, digs into NFF’s history to explain how a focus on learning helps us better serve our clients and communities. This conversation was featured in NFF’s 2025 Annual Report.

Learning is one of NFF’s four values. Why does NFF care so much about learning, and what does it mean for NFF to be a learning organization?

It starts with the belief that as a CDFI, our purpose is to create impact for communities, and communities know their own needs better than we do. Being a learning organization means that we listen to what is happening with our clients, with our partners, with our funders, and with our own staff that are delivering the work. Those experiences – the mistakes, the successes, the surprises – all of that gets synthesized and used to inform how we do our work the next time. It’s about listening to improve our services and our products so that our clients are getting exactly what they need to advance their own financial goals.

We formally made learning an organizational value recently, but that learning orientation has been with NFF from the start. We were founded in 1980 as a loan fund helping nonprofits replace inefficient boilers to lower their heating bills. Over time we listened, we learned, and we expanded our lending based on nonprofits’ needs. Then we found that organizations needed financial management coaching and support, which gave rise to our consulting practice. We listened and learned that we needed better data to advocate on behalf of the social sector, and now advocacy is a core part of our work. What I love about NFF is that we’ve always been open to evolving because we’ve always been focused on learning and responding to what the sector needs.

What changes about the way we support nonprofits when we center community wealth and well-being?

We believe in nonprofits as agents of change and as the social infrastructure of communities, particularly in communities that have been disinvested. Putting the focus on communities sharpens our understanding of how we can help nonprofits achieve their goals.

Community-centered nonprofits have a deep understanding of the challenges and the potential of the communities they serve, and NFF is here to help them navigate what that requires financially. We understand that when a nonprofit is looking for a new space, for them, it’s about the impact that facility makes for their community. We understand that it’s not just about paying staff; it’s about the way that staff represents and engages with the community – and about paying that staff a living wage and benefits so they can sustain their work!

So then how does NFF use the combination of lending, consulting, and advocacy to influence how money flows to nonprofits so they can better support their communities?

NFF is kind of a funny animal. The combination of lender, consultant, and advocate for the nonprofit sector – alongside our learning orientation – give us perspectives and experiences that make us unique. We lend with a community-centered approach that’s informed by lessons from our consulting practice. Our consulting is grounded in the business model basics that grew out of our lending practice. And our advocacy is based on our experience lending and consulting, as well as our conversations with funders, partners, and nonprofits across the country. With all this experience, and our core value to center the perspectives and experiences of communities, we’re well-positioned to speak to how we can strengthen the nonprofit sector.

So when we talk about how money flows in the nonprofit sector, it’s not just about the amount, but also the form and timing: Is it restricted? Does it cover an organization’s full costs? Is it coming in quickly enough to manage cash flow? If it’s a loan, is it structured to align with the business model? Also, who has access to these sources or capital, and to the financial knowledge to manage those resources? These things have a real impact on a nonprofit’s operating realities and ability to serve its community well.

Ideas like full cost, paying nonprofits on time, and nonprofit worker well-being might sound like wonky financial issues for nonprofits, but advancing them ultimately benefits the communities they’re serving. Being this funny animal means NFF can bridge all that with the funders, investors, and government agencies that help keep those community programs going.