Program areas at Credit Builders Alliance
1.core platform services: member and stakeholder relations, Credit bureau services, and training institute a.member and stakeholder relations in 2023 our member and stakeholder relations team supported the onboarding of 71 new members. This team continues to provide more streamlined prospective member outreach and relationship cultivation, member management, and communications and event coordination. As of december 2023, cba had 619 members and 12 specifically designated ally organizations. B.bureau services i.cba reporter is an award-winning, one of a kind service that offers nonprofit and municipal lenders the technical assistance, concrete solutions, and interagency connections they need to effectively and efficiently help their low- and moderate-income clients build Credit and long-term financial capability by reporting their low-and moderate-income borrowers' monthly microenterprise, small business, and consumer loan payments to the major consumer Credit bureaus experian, transunion, and equifax. Cba offers a streamlined on-boarding process for guiding lender members through the Credit bureau credentialing process in order to report their loans and supports the regular transmission of that loan repayment data. Cba provides ongoing and on-demand technical assistance to member lenders, reviews metro2 data for accuracy, and monitors their borrowers' eoscar disputes. In 2023, cba reporter enabled 243 nonprofit lenders to report over 93,939 trade lines every month, totaling just over 3.3 billion in Credit extended to their respective borrowers to start a business, meet a household need, and/or simply build positive personal and business Credit history. Ii.cba business reporter is an add-on service that in 2023 enabled 51 member lenders to report 23,844 microenterprise or small business tradelines totaling 948 million to the commercial Credit bureaus experian business information solutions and dun & bradstreet in order to build their business Credit profiles. Iii.cba access enables nonprofits to pull and purchase Credit reports and Credit scores from the Credit bureaus transunion, experian, equifax, lexisnexis (for access to non-traditional and alternative Credit data), nova Credit (for access to overseas Credit data), and chexsystems (for those working with the unbanked). In 2023, cba launched the corelogic tri- merge Credit report and plaid cashflow underwriting integration under our umbrella. Cba access offers qualified members access to any of these reports at pooled prices in order to underwrite loans, provide financial counseling and Credit coaching, and -- with some contractual restrictions -- track the Credit improvement outcomes of clients. Similar to cba reporter, cba implements a streamlined on-boarding process to guide nonprofits through the Credit bureau credentialing process in order to access their clients' consumer Credit reports. Cba also offers on-demand technical assistance and support to nonprofits around general Credit report reviews and codes, Credit report score intricacies and other information relevant to members and their clients around Credit reports and scores. In 2023, cba access enabled 401 nonprofits engaged in lending and/or financial education to get credentialed to pull approximately 148,991 Credit reports that year. C.training institute i.cba's signature Credit as an asset training has been offered since 2008 to nonprofit lender practitioners, financial coaches and educators, social service providers and others working directly with consumers and entrepreneurs to promote financial stability and inclusion. The training aims to help participants: understand Credit building as an essential and viable activity, foundational to the successful implementation of any financial asset building strategy for low-income and underserved individuals and families; explore tools and develop skills in order to design, implement, and measure Credit building programs based on client needs and goals as well as organization missions and capacities; and engage with other training participants and learn from cba's growing Credit building community about best practices in Credit education, access to responsible financial products, and measuring and communicating client Credit outcomes. In 2023, the training institute had a total of 1688 (693 new in 2023) registered users. As of 2023, 66 individuals (14 new in 2022) representing 27 different states, are certified as master trainers to deliver Credit as an asset training to other practitioners in their local communities. A total of 22 individuals attended cba's live, virtual Credit as an asset bootcamp while 18 attended cba's live, virtual Credit as an asset: small business bootcamp. Separately, 667 individuals participated in one or more of our monthly webinars. 49.84% of cba members had staff attend at least one webinar in 2023. Cba also launched 3 new quick, on demand courses on the training institute in 2023. 154 individuals enrolled in these courses. Cba launched on demand versions of its signature Credit as an asset and Credit as an asset: small business in 2023. 207 individuals enrolled in Credit as an asset while 50 enrolled in Credit as an asset: small business. Ii.under the umbrella of the training institute, cba offers targeted Credit building program design, implementation, and measurement consulting to member and nonmember nonprofits and public entities seeking to develop or enhance their Credit building efforts based on their respective clients' needs and goals as well as organizational missions and capacities. In 2023, cba managed 8 consulting contracts to bring its Credit building expertise, industry connections, and credibility to organizations interested in investing in their Credit building capacity.
2.innovations cba incubates a number of emerging and innovative Credit building initiatives that advance its theory of change: building Credit is part of the asset building pathway to improved financial stability and mission driven nonprofits are uniquely positioned to help the low-income households they serve build Credit as an asset. In 2023 in particular, cba continued or newly catalyzed: a.rent reporting for Credit building in 2015, cba formally rolled out its rent reporting for Credit building service upon successful completion of a pilot focused on helping affordable and public housing providers report their residents' rental payments as a Credit building strategy. In 2023, cba continued to support organizations interested in setting up rent reporting programs via its rent reporting center, which functions as a one-stop shop to locate all information related to rent reporting. This directory of reporting options for landlords is of particular assistance in ca to comply with sb 1157. Cba staff additionally provide implementation support to several cohorts of affordable housing providers and advise policymakers on best practices in rent reporting. B.cba symposium in 2014, cba offered its first ever and incredibly powerful Credit building symposium. Due to popular demand the Credit building symposium has since become an annual event. The symposium is intended to be a dialogue between nonprofit organizations involved in Credit building and those corporate entities whose business practices include Credit reporting, Credit scoring and/or Credit granting. Cba's goal is to broker more discussion between these two connected industries with the intent of continuing to bridge gaps in understanding and strengthening bonds in the Credit reporting arena. An overarching theme for the symposium every year is the linkage between the work being done in the Credit building field and that of the broader issues of income inequality, poverty reduction, and asset building. The symposium also offers our members and other Credit building industry stakeholders a great opportunity to learn and build relationships. In 2023, cba's Credit building symposium engaged stakeholders from across the country with 357 registrants c.other field building efforts cba launched the foster Credit check website to highlight foster care agencies' federally mandated responsibility to pull Credit reports for youth in foster care and to share resources on reading and understanding Credit reports. Cba created the financial equity conversations (fec) event series to bring together nonprofit practitioners, financial services and technology companies, policymakers, and consumers to discuss challenges in access to Credit and banking. Cba held three fec events in Washington, dc; chicago, il; and oakland, ca.