“We are deeply saddened by Irvin’s sudden passing,” said Jesse Van Tol, NCRC’s president and CEO. “As one of the founding board members of NCRC, he played a pivotal role in shaping our organization and was a tireless champion of our cause. For many of us, he was a friend and a trusted voice — someone who cared very deeply for his family, his colleagues and NCRC. He was a lion of the community development movement. May he rest in power. ”

“Irvin’s leadership was grounded in a belief that every community deserves the opportunity to thrive,” said Carol Johnson, NCRC’s board chair and president and CEO of Johnson Consulting Group. “As Board Chair, I was fortunate to have in Irvin not only a trusted colleague and Vice Chair, but someone whose history with NCRC reached all the way back to its founding. He understood where this organization came from, why this work matters and how much perseverance it takes to turn our values into meaningful change. Irvin brought that perspective to every conversation, always keeping the people and communities we serve at the center. The standard he set and the work he helped build will continue to guide us.”

“For almost two decades I’ve served with, listened to and admired Irvin Henderson—a friend, a mentor and someone who used his knowledge, his intellect, and his voice to speak on behalf of communities of people for whom he cared so deeply,” said Bob Dickerson, past NCRC board chair, current board member and executive director of the Birmingham Business Resource Center. “I recall with gratitude Irvin pulling me aside when I first joined the NCRC Board. He welcomed me warmly and offered to share his experience and insight, saying he wanted to help me make a greater contribution. That gesture reflected who he was at his core: generous with his time, intentional in his support of others, and committed to lifting those around him. Irvin was always prepared, always thoughtful, and always spoke with wisdom. He carried himself with a quiet integrity that never needed to be announced, only witnessed. Those who had the privilege of working alongside him will never forget the steadiness of his presence or the clarity of his voice when it mattered most. I am deeply grateful for the years I had to serve with him. Irvin’s legacy lives on in the communities he championed, the colleagues he guided, and the many lives he touched along the way. He will be deeply missed and long remembered.”

“Irv was many things to me and others…bright, funny, impactful, smart and a leader,” John Taylor, NCRC founder and longtime CEO. “I owe him a great deal and I will remember him for the rest of my life.” 

“Irvin was a passionate, committed, incredibly hard worker – and for me personally, a dedicated friend and mentor,” said Bethany Sanchez, NCRC board member and fair lending administrator for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council. “Irv’s passing will hit NCRC leadership and members hard, leaving a hole in our hearts.”

“Nobody cared more about, or supported more, NCRC and its work than Irv,” said Kevin Stein, NCRC board member and chief of legal and strategy at Rise Economy. “He was gracious and respectful to all stakeholders in talking about communities, always inviting people in. And he also had strong values and spoke forcefully and compellingly about the dignity and opportunities that people and neighborhoods deserved. May his memory be a blessing to his family, and to all of us.”

“In 2012, Irv Henderson and I were part of a team pitching to the city of Raleigh, NC about how to redevelop and revitalize the historic John Chavis Memorial Park, initially created as the ‘Colored park’ serving only Black people in the 1930’s,” said Vernice Miller-Travis, NCRC board member and co-founder of We ACT for Environmental Justice. “We were zipping through our presentation when Irv recounted how he had learned how to swim as a child in the pool at the park. But as he got older, he was unable to earn his Boy Scout Eagle Scout Badge because he needed to be able to swim the length of an Olympic-size swimming pool, and the only pool available to him did not meet that criteria. As I looked around the room at City of Raleigh Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources staff, I could see as Irv was recounting his childhood experience with segregation that ran right through that very park, that that was when we won the bid. Today, John Chavis Memorial Park has been completely reimagined, redesigned and revitalized via a $40 million capital investment by the City of Raleigh based upon the revised master plan that we created. It has also been added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is but one in a very long chain of examples of how Irv saw things others didn’t see, imagined what could be, and then went to work to make his vision a reality.” 

“As a new Board Member in 2019, I remember with great admiration and respect meeting and seeing Irvin Henderson in action at the Just Economy Conference where we were meeting with FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery,” said Aaron Miripol, NCRC board member and president and CEO of Urban Land Conservancy. “Irvin’s passion for community came out loud and clear as he spoke to the commissioner on the challenges NCRC’s members were having with FHA financing. In addition, Irvin was kind enough to include me, the newbie to NCRC, in the conversation and asked me to share my Colorado experience with Commissioner Montgomery. That is what made Irvin so special, his incredible knowledge and experience as a community developer and NCRC Board member, layered with his ability to include, engage and educate all of us. His passing is a loss for all of us, and yet Irvin’s greatest gift to NCRC was not just his expertise, but his commitment to lifting others up—and that is the standard we must all now aspire to. The call to action for NCRC has never been greater, and Irvin’s influence on all of us is what must lead the day going forward. Thank you, Irvin!”

“I will never forget the things Irv worked with us on at NCRC, from the Historic Tax Credit to the fights with Capital One to carrying the message, again and again, to Capitol Hill,” said Matthew R. Lee, NCRC board member and executive director of Inner City Press. “Irv’s passing leaves a hole in our advocacy. We must all work hard to keep up the fight, now with CRA under attack from the OCC and FDIC. Do it for Irv…”

“I was constantly awed by Irvin’s unrelenting advocacy for economic justice, his poise and decorum, and his work ethic,” said Elisabeth Risch, NCRC board member and executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Greater Cincinnati (HOME). “He showed up for calls in airports, cars, always en route across the country in pursuit of making local communities better and more equitable. He was a power-broker with the interests of the underserved community front and center. He never let me forget that family was the most important. He always asked about my family, reminded me to take care of myself and my family. That balance of fierce advocacy and genuine care is what I’ll carry forward.

“Having been a lifelong member of NCRC, I always associated Irvin with this wonderful organization more so than anyone else,” said Roberto Barragan, NCRC board member and executive director of ICON CDC. “His dedication, optimism and tenacious defense of CRA  was a sight to behold. His ability to speak on any subject to any audience with understanding and insight was always awe-inspiring.  And to see over the years, his love for the organization was never diminished, and his willingness to fight was greater than ever.”

“It was an honor to know Irv. He could always start a conversation or take the lead in any conversation in a positive manner – Irv knew everything,” said Charles Harris, NCRC board member and executive director of Housing, Education and Economic Development. “He was a mentor to all of us, and I noticed that whenever we were in a committee meeting and the moderator was waiting for a response  [when the room was quiet] everybody waited for Irv to take the lead or answer the question. When I became a member of NCRC, he gave me a great welcome and we became good friends. Over the years, outside of us discussing CRA and economic justice, we talked about jazz and blues music. NCRC and the industry has lost a person with lots of knowledge and he will be sorely missed.”

“I will miss Irv’s tenacious approach to all that he encountered,” said Peter Hainley, NCRC board member and executive director of CASA of Oregon. “That gleam in his eye! A true warrior for economic justice, he will be sorely missed.” 

“Irv had a total and wonderful devotion to NCRC,” said Sharon Lee, NCRC board member and executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute. “I loved what he would say in our meetings. His excellent leadership propelled the movement forward!” 

“I am saddened of the loss of my teacher, who became my dear friend and mentor,” said Ernie Hogan, NCRC board member. “His passion for uplifting underserved communities through preservation, affordable housing and economic development spilled over all of us he touched! It was Irvin who showed me the value of CRA! How it connected our work of communities with the banking and finance world!  That is was worth fighting for its future. His work, his words, his friendships will not be forgotten as we all take what Irv has taught us forward!! I will miss my friend!”

Henderson was the principal of Henderson & Company, a consulting firm and development company with particular expertise in the areas of community development and historic preservation, and commercial, residential and enterprise development. He was a trustee of the National Trust of Historic Preservation for Henderson, NC, and he sat on many additional boards devoted to community development and preservation. 

NCRC invites all who knew Irvin to submit stories, photos and tributes to be shared with the family.

Photo: Irvin Henderson at the 2026 Just Economy Conference, April 14, 2026, in Washington, DC.

Are you making the most of your NCRC Membership?

Learn what resources, services, content and networking opportunities your membership includes and how being a NCRC member can help you in your fight for a #JustEconomy. NCRC staff share tips for making the most of your membership and provide a walk-through of NCRC’s newest member features.

Speakers

• Caitie Rountree, Director of Membership and Events, NCRC
• Diane Ashong, Membership Engagement Manager, NCRC
• Ralph Cyrus, Membership Engagement Specialist, NCRC
• Tara Flynn, Policy Director, NCRC
• Jacelyn Matthews, Director of National Training Academy, NCRC

Transcript:

NCRC video transcripts are produced by a third-party transcription service and may contain errors. They are lightly edited for style and clarity.

Rountree 0:06
Well, welcome to this conversation on what it means to be an NCRC member. We’re excited to have you here. Whether you are a longtime member learning a little bit more about our membership benefits, a newer member, an organization exploring membership, or maybe you are a staff person at an organization that’s been a member for a long time, but you’ve never actually directly engaged with NCRC. Wherever you’re coming from today, we’re glad you’re here.

Just a little bit of housekeeping before we jump into our conversation today. This event, as all our events, whether virtual or in person, is subject to NCRC’s code of conduct. Please take a look at that if you need a refresher on like to engage in spaces respectfully. But high expectations of all of you. One note: we do not allow AI chatbots on the webinar. This webinar is being recorded, and the recording and slides will be shared afterwards. So our staff will be removing chatbots, but don’t worry; the content will be shared with all registrants afterwards. Please submit questions along the way in the Q and A button at the bottom of your screen. A small thing: if you have updated Zoom recently, you may look for that box and find that it has moved. If you don’t see it where you normally do, click on the more icon with the three dots and look for the Q and A box there. And we’ll answer some of those as we go along. And we’ll also pause along the way to answer verbally. And make sure to follow us on our social media accounts so that you can stay in the loop with new developments.

All right, I would love to introduce the rest of our speakers today, and before we get to that, I’ll I’ll tell you a little bit about NCRC as an organization. So we’re a national advocacy organization, a network of over 700 member organizations working to advance wealth equity by improving how capital flows into communities. We convene leaders just like you across sectors to advance policy change, expand opportunities, and strengthen a financial system that better serves communities and shares prosperity. We do that through three primary strategies: by boosting knowledge, by building capacity, and by bridging access. Together, these strategies help create an economy where communities have greater power to shape local growth, where families have a fair opportunity to build wealth, and financial institutions are more accountable to the people and communities that they serve. That’s the foundation that NCRC was built on. So the natural next question is, what does that mean for you, and why does it make sense to be a part of this coalition?

So NCRC combines advocacy, coalition building and accountability strategies to drive systemic change. As a national convener, we bring together community organizations, policymakers, financial institutions and corporate leaders to develop solutions that strengthen communities and expand opportunity. Our network-driven approach connects local experience, policy expertise and investment initiatives that ensure that communities have both a voice and a seat at the table. You’ve heard what NCRC is and what we do, but membership isn’t measured by a list of benefits. It’s measured by what those benefits actually make possible. So instead of giving you a catalog of services, I’d actually like to show you membership in action. We’re going to talk about a real member, anonymous, but I think you’ll be able to get a sense of the organization, a real challenge that they brought to us, and just one way that NCRC helped them achieve an outcome that they couldn’t have accomplished as easily on their own.

One of our members is a homeownership nonprofit in the Upper Midwest that operates a down payment assistance loan program. Like many community organizations, they were doing really important work, but they didn’t have an in-house research team. They wanted to better understand their program’s impact, where it was succeeding, where there were opportunities to improve, and how to communicate those findings to the partners and funders investing in the work. So they came to NCRC’s research team for help. Our researchers conducted a loan-level analysis and delivered a comprehensive impact report, complete with data visualizations, supporting analysis and practical insights they could immediately put to use. The result wasn’t just a polished report; it helped the organization better understand what was happening in their community, so they could strengthen their program and better meet local needs. It also gave them credible evidence to show partners and funders how investing in this work could improve the flow of capital in the community and expand opportunities for homeownership.

That’s what membership looks like across our network. Your organization doesn’t have to solve every challenge alone. Through the coalition, you gain access to research, to policy expertise, training, and relationships that help your organization better understand community needs, strengthen your work, and ultimately help communities shape how opportunity and investment flow where they’re needed most. So, if we can move to the next slide, I’m about to introduce you to a couple of different people who bring that same kind of support in very different ways. Tara from our policy team, and then Jacelyn from our National Training Academy. They’ll show you two more examples of how NCRC’s expert staff partners with members to strengthen our communities. So Tara, I’m going to turn it over to you.

Flynn 5:01
Great, hi everybody. I’m Tara Flynn. I’m NCRC’s policy director. Just for context, I started here about six months ago after a career in federal government as a consumer protection attorney at the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Our policy team is small but mighty, and I should note that we work really closely with the research team that got such a nice shout-out just now, Caitie. You know they do fantastic work, and they provide essential data analysis for our policy work, and obviously provide that same assistance to members. So officially, the policy team is four people. We’re all up on the screen. Our fearless leader, Eden Forsythe, who heads up policy and research. Kevin Hill, who is a senior policy analyst, and he focuses a lot on Community Reinvestment Act-related issues. Manon Shah, he’s a policy analyst who focuses on CDFI and small business issues, and I focus on the intersection of fintech and banking. And lately, that has meant I’ve been focusing a lot on stablecoin and crypto. We, you know, I’ve said we specialize or focus on certain areas, but we are all available. If you ever need anything, you don’t need to know which one to talk to. We all talk to each other. So, what does this policy team do? Well, we provide strategic direction on policy research and advocacy for NCRC. That means you know we think about how we should deploy our resources, what issues we should prioritize, what we should engage on, and what we should respond to. We also analyze policies and proposals and translate them into hopefully practical guidance for members. That’s figuring out essentially how legislative and regulatory proposals impact our core issues, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. And we also create a lot of educational content, webinars, things up on our website, and you know, comment letters, draft model comment letters, things like that that can help educate and provide assistance to our members.

We form strategies for our advocacy, and you know that again, we want to figure out how can we effectively impact the debate and hopefully impact the outcome. So we also try to bring members’ experience into policymaking, and one way we do that is connecting members with Capitol Hill staff. For example, in connection with our opposition to the digital asset market structure bill known as the Clarity Act, we requested meetings from the staffs of senators who had voted for the Genius Act, which is the bill that was passed last year about stablecoin. But the Clarity Act is a broader bill, and so we wanted to talk to senators before they voted on it in at the Senate Banking Committee. So one of our big concerns is whether stablecoin and crypto might cause the deposits to migrate out of banks, and then deposits wouldn’t be available for lending and investment in communities. So we made our request for these meetings. We got a couple meetings, and then we reached out. One was in Georgia, Senator Ossoff of Georgia, and Senator Gallego of Arizona. And then we got members. We asked members, and they graciously agreed to attend these meetings with us as constituents, and that really helped. Their participation and their sharing of their stories of how a lack of capital impacts their communities was really helpful, and I think strengthened our advocacy. So that’s just an example of the way that we try to do that, bring stories to Capitol Hill. And we also mobilize membership around our shared priorities, and you know try to identify opportunities to influence public policy. We’ll talk a bit more about it on a later slide, but there are lots of opportunities for NCRC members to influence public policy and our advocacy. So I have a quick example from this week. There was the House Financial Services Committee was considering a bill called the Main Street Access to Capital Bill, which had some good CDFI provisions in it, but mostly it was terrible. It was a deregulatory bill, so the vote was coming up fast. We had to mobilize quickly. We wrote a letter and we sent out a call to members to see if they would sign on. And even though we only had three hours to do it, we got 30 members to sign on. And then the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee actually referenced the letter, and most importantly, that members from throughout the country had signed on to it. So mobilizing membership and using our collective voice is an important part of what we do.

So what are our priorities? So they’re written out here, and I think they’re probably, hopefully, shared priorities for you all too. We want to hold financial institutions accountable to communities, especially the communities that they serve. We want to strengthen and protect the Community Reinvestment Act and fair lending laws. Advance fair lending and combat discrimination in mortgage lending, appraisals, and insurance and access to housing. We want to expand affordable home ownership, rental housing, responsible credit for underserved communities, and increase investment in CDFIs, affordable housing, and community development.

So, how can we work together? Well, I already talked a little bit about comment letters. I gave the you know previous example, but that is one way that we are able to work together, have a collective voice. We often also provide draft comment letters or help member organizations with their comment letters about legislation, or actually, you know, regulation, which is another big area that we focus on. We hold a monthly call to keep members apprised of what our regulatory or legislative developments in that may actually impact our priority areas. So that’s something that’s a give and take and a conversation. And we also have Hill Day on there. During the Just Economy Conference, we dedicate a whole day to going to the Hill to share our stories and share our priorities with members of Congress and well, more likely their staffs. But it’s a great opportunity for us all to create and enhance our relationships with members of Congress and promote NCRC’s legislative priorities. And we coalition and connection formation-that’s super important. We all don’t all have the same issues that we value different issues differently, and so it’s important that when people have priority issues, that we can work, you know, get the group of people who are really interested in a particular issue together and share ideas. So we set up smaller groups, talk about issues. For example, we have a group that talks about 1071 business lending data collection. We have another one that someone suggested recently on leg-reg call about Small Business Administration loans and lending practices. These coalitions can also include work with state groups, several state groups where we’re trying to advance legislation. We had a very successful effort with advancing legislation in Illinois for a state CRA, working with the Illinois CRA Coalition to strengthen Illinois’s CRA law. And speaking of CRA, sort of going back to the you know how we can stay informed and mobilize our members. I wanted to do a quick shout-out for the fact that we are having a webinar next Wednesday at 330, and that is, you know, the NCRC’s president and CEO Jesse Van Tol and the policy team will be sharing our latest intel about proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act and how to work together to prevent it from being significantly weakened. So that’s just an example of I think of several of these things that we’ve talked about. But providing ways to stay informed, mobilizing our membership, and I think it’s a great example. And I hope any of you who are interested do attend. I think I’ve covered everything. I hope that I gave you a little bit of a flavor of the kind of policy work we do, and you know how we can work together to try to advance our priorities. So, if you have any questions, please contact me. I shared that picture because that was right before I testified before Congress. Very exciting day for me.

Rountree 13:59
We all cheered really loud for Tara. Yeah, thank you so much, Tara, for sharing and for your continued advocacy on behalf of and with our members. So research helps our members understand what’s happening in their communities. Our policy team helps shape the systems that affect those communities. But lasting change also depends on the people doing the work every day, that’s where our National Training Academy comes in. Jacelyn and her team equip practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and technical assistance they need to translate ideas into action and create stronger outcomes in the communities that they serve. So, Jacelyn, I’m going to turn it over to you to introduce your team and talk about how y’all work with NCRC members,

Matthews 14:41
Thanks, Caitie, and thank you all for being with us this afternoon to learn more about the benefits of membership. As Caitie mentioned, I’m the director of the National Training Academy here at NCRC. My name is Jacelyn Matthews, and on my team is Doug Mollet, who is our program manager, Sally Sim, who is another program manager, and then Simon Wang, who is our project specialist. I will say that Doug and Simon are leading our work when it comes to economic mobility, and then Sally works really closely on our housing counseling trainings.

So just to kind of give you an idea of who we are and what we do as NTA, the National Training Academy here. We really are the professional development and capacity-building arm for NCRC. So we work on equipping nonprofit organizations, housing counselors, as I mentioned, financial counselors, workforce development professionals, and community practitioners with the tools they need to really strengthen their organizations and better serve their communities. We want to make sure people feel really equipped to do the work they do, so any way that we can hone or enhance those skills, we are here to do so through the trainings that we offer. So it’s whether through our trainings, whether it’s like technical assistance that we offer, peer learning cohorts, and specialized initiatives, our goal really is to help organizations build capacity and create lasting community impact.

Um, so they already switched over to the slide that talks about the work that we do and the type of topics that we cover through our programming. So as you can see, we’re offering live webinars and virtual trainings. We don’t want a webinar just to be a webinar. We don’t want you to spend 90 minutes of your day just to kind of have information kind of force-fed to you. We really want it to be a deeper dive on a topic that is of interest to you. So we do like to get feedback from our community about what are some of the things that they’re seeing in the field that they want to learn a little bit more about. We try to be as responsive as possible in what we offer. We do offer multi-day, in-person trainings, usually just on one topic, where again we’re trying to drill down and give you really like the meat of the topic, so that you feel better prepared to do the work that you are already doing a great job at. But how can we help to hone some of those skills? As I mentioned, place-based learning experiences, professional development for individuals and teams. Again, if you’re wanting to grow your team and build on their tools, we want to make sure we’re able to do that as well. Technical assistance and implementation support, specialized workforce and economic mobility initiatives, and as you can see here, we cover a range of topics. This is not an exhaustive list; it’s just an example of some of the things that we cover. But wanted to give you an idea of what we do.

I did want to highlight some of the work that our economic mobility team has been working on with our SNAP E&T. So SNAP E&T is employment and training. They’re focused on that. So this initiative helps NCRC, NCRC is helping actually workforce development organizations to understand, launch, and strengthen SNAP employment and training programs that connect individuals receiving SNAP benefits with education, skills training, employment opportunities and supportive services. So NTA provides technical assistance and toolkits statewide, learning cohorts and peer learning opportunities that help organizations navigate program requirements and become successful third-party providers. So this work expands organizations’ ability to secure additional resources for their organization, while increasing economic mobility for communities that they serve. And so, we’ve seen some of that take place in Kentucky, for example. We were able to get a number of organizations to be able to get this additional SNAP E&T funding, and that’s something that we have really prided ourselves on what we’ve been able to do, and if you’re wanting more information about that, that information I think is going to be dropped in the chat, so you can kind of get a better sense of the SAP E&T work.

I also want to mention before we move on to the next one. So when it comes to our professional development for individuals and teams, just to give you an idea of what we do there as a member, if you are reaching out because you have some changes on your staff, or there’s some key items and things that you want them to learn and grow in, we have been able to send out an instructor that can actually lead trainings for you in the organization within your within your organization or within your your center or your offices. So it’s not that you have to bring everyone over to where we are to learn said topic. If it is an in-person training, it’s not that you can only bring one or two people and have to bring back the information. This is something that you can actually reach out to us and say, like, hey, we would like someone that can bring this information to our office so that everybody can hear it in real time and be able to respond and ask questions, etc. So that is a benefit as well.

As a member of NCRC, how you can leverage the work with NTA. So again, there’s access to discounted member pricing on trains and events. Right now, there is a cost for all of our trainings, but the great thing is that members receive either free or heavily discounted access to said trainings. You’re able to attend member-exclusive webinars, develop new and existing staff through professional development, as I mentioned before, earn continual education credits when available, staying informed about emerging policies, regulations, and best practices, and I won’t read all of these here to you, but I think that what I want to highlight is that we also work really closely with other departments across the organization. So if they’re wanting to put on webinars to showcase subject matter expertise internally about the work that they’re doing, we work with them to create those topics as well. So we are not just focused on housing counseling and economic mobility, but there’s opportunities for you to have a better understanding of the work that’s happening across the organization through some of the webinars that we do hold as well.

And so, I do want to make sure that I make mention of if you are interested, particularly when it comes to housing counseling topics. Part of the great thing about what we offer is that you’re able to get all of the prep that you need to either become a housing counseling agency, to be certified as a HUD-certified housing counselor, or even to become a HECCOM-certified housing counselor, do offer those trainings as well, so that people are able to get what they need. Whether that is as a virtual training, we had an in-person training in Milwaukee on HECCOM just last month, or if it is something that we’re able to offer, so that if you’re not able to actually join for the virtual training that’s happening when it comes to HECCOM or housing counseling, that there is something that’s self-paced, right? So that you’re able to do it on your time and then be able to come back and ask questions and you know receive support on those things as well. So I do think that what we have to offer, one, we are getting some of the best trainers in the business, right? So that you are again information that’s on the cutting edge of what’s out there. Nothing’s dated. We try to make sure that we are always giving you something that’s new, exciting, and fresh because we know that things are constantly changing, right? In the work that you do, and so how can we make sure that we are consistently relevant in what we have to offer?

And so those are some of the things that we do offer. If you ever have questions about topics that we offer or ideas about topics, also are really open to hearing that as well from our members to make sure again that we are providing things that are relevant to the work that you’re currently doing and things that you’re wanting to learn and grow in. With that being said, I’ll turn it back over to Caitie.

Rountree 22:06
Thanks so much, Jacelyn, and I’ll make a direct plug here. If you have not done a training with NCRC yet, I would really strongly recommend that you start with CRA content that our training academy offers. What you’ll find at NCRC is that while we work on a variety of issues, not all of them directly tied to CRA, understanding how NCRC engages and thinks about the Community Reinvestment Act serves as a really good foundation and entry point for a lot of the ways that we work with our members and with financial institutions, and so that is a great start here really, before engaging in other trainings, policy work, research, it’ll just give you the lens to see a lot of the other work that we do with our members. So, if you’re not sure where to start, that’s where you start. So, I’m gonna turn it over in a minute to talk more about some of the specifics of membership. But wanted to pause for a handful of questions here for Tara or Jacelyn about the way our policy teams and our training staff work to support members. And just as a reminder, this feels like a good point to remind folks that we will be sharing the recording and the slides, and our membership team is also happy to follow up with additional questions and support following this webinar.

The first question that I’d like to turn over to Jacelyn and then Tara, because it actually I think touches on both of their support to members, is a question about advocacy training for nonprofits. So for organizations that are interested in support for to do advocacy at the local, state, and federal level, how do we support members in that work? Jacelyn, I’m going to start with you, and then actually, Tara, there might be additional ways of support that you want to highlight as well. So, Jacelyn.

Matthaws 24:00
Sure. So first, I will say that when it comes to advocacy, if you’re wanting to learn how to actually go about doing that, we have wanted to start trying to offer more training on those topics. So, actually, how do you actually go about doing advocacy work? We’ve done something. We’re starting out with our community investment institute, which is really trying to deep dive into a couple of different things when it comes to membership. But that’s one of the things that we’ve been talking about: is how do we actually provide additional training and resources for those who are wanting to learn about what advocacy is? And then, for example, we’ve done recently the training before Hill Day this year. We did a storytelling workshop so that people can feel more connected to their story and feeling really confident about their story when they’re going to actually speak to their state or federal legislator. And so it’s something that we have seen as something that is important for us to do. Really working on curriculum that really meets the need in the moment as well. Don’t want it to be a flyby night. Hey, we put something together, but want to be really intentional about it. And so, it is something that we are working to build out and really be able to showcase soon. And I’ll leave it to Tara if she has something additional that she would like to share there.

Flynn 25:15
Hi. Yeah. I guess I’d just say that often in terms of how to advocate regarding a particular issue, we do that through our smaller working groups or through, you know, the development of materials that we share with members when we’re working on a campaign. So, for example, I mentioned what was you know there are some developments regarding the Community Reinvestment Act, perhaps some re-examining anticipated by the regulators, and so we are in the throes of thinking through what kind of materials and educational and training materials we can put together so that folks, NCRC members, can help, you know we can help mobilize, and folks will mobilize and use those resources to you know tell the story of how the CRA is important to you know every organization. I don’t know if that addresses the question, but I think that it’s more campaign focused in terms of what sort of resources we developed on the policy team.

Rountree 26:20
That’s perfect, Tara. And just to restate something you said, answering another question, just specifically around template comment letters in a very similar fashion. NCRC produces both comment letters that we are submitting and inviting our members to sign on to, and as a particular campaign warrants, we’ll provide template language for our members to then adapt and use to be able to submit their own original comment letter. Yeah, I just wanted to bump that up because I think that’s also very, very helpful. There will be other opportunities to answer questions. So if you have more questions, put them in the chat. I’m going to turn it over now to our membership engagement specialist to talk a little bit about member eligibility, how to manage your membership, etc. Ralph, I will turn it over to you.

Cryus 27:05
Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Ralph Cyrus, the membership engagement specialist for NCRC, along with my colleague Diana Ashong, who’s the membership engagement manager. We are sort of the first point of contact, one-stop shop for members and prospects who are interested in getting to know about our resources and wanting to know how to how to get involved. We’re more than happy to help direct your membership journey.

So, what we’re going to do first is just go through overview of the membership webpage. You can visit it yourself at ncrc.org/membership and get to get started on at least the first point of contact when it comes to knowing more about what how to who’s eligible for membership and what resources are available. So first, this is our homepage. You would click the top where it says membership. It’ll take you directly to our membership page where you can join immediately. From there, you can from the membership page you can join immediately. You’ll see a list of benefits that are available to new members, whether it’s signing up for different resources or just getting something that’s on the website. If you ever have a question, feel free to fill out that contact us form at the top of the page, and then there you’ll have a benefits list that shows some of the opportunities and resources that are available for members. We also have a map that shows where all of our members are throughout the country. We’re going to review the member map a little bit later, so we’ll get back to that. And if you’re already ready to sign up, you can choose the membership tier that best reflects your organization. If you’re a nonprofit, you would choose the option that reflects your organizational budget, and you could sign up right there. We also have tiers for local and state government agencies, as well as research and educational institutions, as well. And then at the bottom of that page, we have a bunch of frequently asked questions about membership. How do I join? How do I access my account? What are the costs? What are the other benefits? That listing right there is pretty good because you have clickable links that you can use to explore the rest of our of our website, the the rest of our website as well. Some other questions that may be asked is how do I get reminders for renewal? Just as a heads up, renewal starts from your day of signing up. So, say you signed up for membership today, you will get a your renewal date would be this time next year. Just worry. You don’t. All you have to worry about is an annual renewal renewalship. So feel free to look through our frequently asked questions for any resolutions. And one thing we do want members to do is to give us an updated list of contact information, so you can either adjust. Listed on your member hub profile, or you can fill out this demographic form that we will share. That will let you know about who in your organization we should be contacting, a bit about your work, where you’re located, and things that you feel we should know about your organization. And we will be sure to update that and make sure that other staff members are aware of that information as well. Now we’re going to take a look at our member map that I’m really excited to show. I love sharing it with people. Anytime people want to know who our members are of the 700-member network throughout the country, can all you can always check out the member map on the membership page. When you’re reviewing it, you can click on any particular state and see how many members we have and where are they. We have members throughout the country and multiple levels of density. We even have members in Puerto Rico. We were recently on a meeting with them, learning about their great work.

We’ll use Jackson, Mississippi, as an example. Basically, you can zoom in and see all of the members there. And when you click on their name, either directly on the map or through that list on the side, it’ll take you directly to their website. We’re going to use the Housing, Education, and Economic Development team as an example, led by the great Charles Harris. You can also search in that profile for city and have it search through to see what members are available there, and if you ever want to get in contact with any of your fellow members, you feel free to reach out to the membership team. We’re happy to set up that connective tissue, or you can reach out directly from their websites as well.

And lastly, we’re going to show you what the member hub profile provides for you. It’s the member hub is a one-stop shop where you can add members, add team members to your subscription. You can update the pro the newsletter profiles that are available to you. You can see what your current team subscription is. Get a an invoice downloaded to you. You can all also sub make submissions yourself. So we’ll just take a quick look through what the member hub provides. So when you sign into your account, you’ll see up top the member. You should see my account. You can go into your settings, go to subscriptions, choose your subscription. If you copy that link right there and share with other staff, they’ll be able to create accounts under their email addresses for the organization subscription. You can also add – if you are the group manager, you can add or subtract staff as there’s turnover in your organization. You can also download an invoice directly from there for any of your financial records. And now we’re going to see what the member hub looks like.

One of the first things you can do on the member hub is go to update your newsletter subscriptions. If there are, if you’re not getting enough information from NCRC, or if you’re getting too much, you can add or or you could select or unselect the subscriptions that you’re getting. Discuss the topic of interest that are interesting to you, and you’ll you’ll get our our slate of emails.

We have a variety of research projects, blog reports. Some are a series like the Mortgage Market Series that is available for members, and then we have a calendar of up upcoming events, typically a summit conference, training courses, and then what we also have is what we call the field notes. So you can provide a story of your organization, some of your great work, and the field notes submission and our communications team will work with you to make a field notes member profile out of that, and a lot of members have said how amazing it is to have their work platform there. So if you have anything interesting that you’ve been working on, you want to share with us, please feel free to submit field notes, and we would love to platform it. So that’s just a little bit of what’s available on the member hub. I encourage everyone, when you have time, to just go ahead and do a scroll through our website. When you log into the member hub, see what resources are available. If anything is confusing, feel free to reach out to membership. You can email us at membership@ncrc.org to get involved.

Now, if you’re ready to commit today, I would encourage you to visit our website or scan that QR code to go to the membership page. Feel free to also reach out to us to schedule a call. We’ll kind of walk through that list of benefits and see which ones stand out for you, or we’ll discuss tools or aspects of NCRC that you’re interested in as well. And you don’t have to. You can be a current member, you can be a former member, you can be somebody who’s just learning, hearing about NCRC, and you want to know more. We’re more than happy to talk to you about your work and how NCRC can be a part of that. And now I will I will turn back to Caitie to finish us out.

Rountree 35:45
Thanks so much, Ralph. Really, the member map where we’re able to see where y’all are working all across the country, it is so cool, and so glad to be able to use that as a way to help y’all connect to each other more easily. One, just a I’ll do a double click on something that Ralph mentioned in the member hub. You can customize newsletters you receive from us. If there is one email that you read from NCRC every week, I suggest that you make it the member update that goes out on Wednesday mornings. We use this as a digest and highlights, so it’s not very long, but it will summarize the most important things that we think that members should be aware of that week, where you can see upcoming trainings and events, registration and information about those, opportunities to participate in our policy work, comment letters, breaking news that’s important related to our advocacy work. It’s where applications for funding are highlighted. Many times, those get their own dedicated emails with more information. But that Wednesday morning member update email should give you the the Cliff Notes guide to everything that’s happening to NCRC in that particular week. So that’s one to make sure that you look at every week. And if you have multiple staff who you think may benefit from engaging with NCRC, make sure that their accounts are set up so that they’re receiving that as well.

We’ve got just a couple more minutes here for some additional questions. One thing just related to the member hub question, I think Jocelyn answered directly, but I think it’s worth saying out loud. One of my dreams as a backend person is that eventually we will have single sign-in for all the different things that we offer to our members. But at this point in time, you need a different account to be able to log into the member hub, and a different account to log into our training portal. So, if you’re trying to log in one place, information, password, etc. from another, that might be why you’re having trouble. Either the training academy or the membership team would be happy to help sort you out. Just a heads up that those are different accounts, unfortunately.

Checking to see if there are any other questions that I can answer, folks, before we wrap. But I think this has been just a really informative conversation. Thank our my fellow colleagues for their presentations and information, and thank all of you. I just want to leave you with one final thought before we close. NCRC offers research, policy expertise, training, all these different resources to strengthen your organization’s work. But the reality is that being a member of NCRC is actually about something even bigger than that. It’s an invitation to join more than 700 organizations that are working together to improve how capital flows into communities, to expand opportunity and advance wealth equity. That’s not something that NCRC is doing for our members. It’s something that we’re doing with our members, and it takes all of us working together to do that. So we’re incredibly grateful for the work that you’re doing in your communities and for the work that you’re doing with us. We really truly believe that in order to solve the enormous challenges that this country faces, we’re going to need to do it in collaboration with one another. So we hope that you’ll join us. Grateful for your participation. Yeah, and look forward to helping to build a stronger movement for community development and wealth equity with you.

At the beginning of the Trump administration’s second term, the regulators in charge of implementing the CRA—the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—came under new leadership and in July 2025 they issued a proposal to rescind the 2023 revisions. The agencies were still reviewing comments on that proposal when this article went to press. 

States, however, can pass their own CRA laws: seven states and Washington, D.C., already have, and others are considering doing so. “As we see the federal government repeal previous rules or extend times between examinations, states can push back on that,” says Kevin Hill, senior policy advisor at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). One plus of state CRA laws, Hill adds, is that in addition to state-chartered banks, they can—and often do—cover credit unions and mortgage companies, which the federal CRA statute doesn’t. 

“First Financial has once again demonstrated what it looks like to be a true community partner,” said Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO of NCRC. “These addendums reflect a serious commitment to ensuring that as First Financial grows in Ohio and into the Chicagoland area, the communities in those new markets — particularly those that have been historically underserved — will benefit from that growth in concrete, meaningful ways.”

“At First Financial we truly believe that we are improving lives through our commitment to helping our clients and communities thrive,” said Archie Brown, president and CEO of First Financial. “We are enthusiastic in extending the reach and positive impact of our CBA so that we can become a trusted financial partner for the new neighbors and communities we now serve.”

A detailed summary of the plan can be found below. Highlights of the plan for Chicago include:

• $10 million in mortgage lending through the use of products providing greater access to LMI communities and borrowers, providing access to community development mortgage loan officers and making available small-dollar mortgages and home improvement loans,
• $9 million in small business lending in LMI communities through support of small business development corporations and business incubators and through the issuance of microloans,
• $45 million in community development lending and investments in affordable housing, community services, revitalization and stabilization, and projects that create permanent jobs, which benefit LMI areas,
• $1 million in philanthropy, targeting donations to organizations that create and preserve affordable housing and workforce development, plus those that provide housing counseling and promote financial and economic inclusion,
• $75,000 in marketing and communications to benefit clients and communities in LMI and majority-minority census tracts.

Highlights for Northeast Ohio under the amended CBA include:

• $9 million in mortgage lending through the use of products providing greater access to LMI communities and borrowers, an intentional effort in rural communities, providing access to community development mortgage loan officers and making available small-dollar mortgages and home improvement loans,
• $50 million in small business lending in LMI communities through support of small business development corporations and business incubators and through the issuance of microloans,
• $45 million in community development lending and investments in affordable housing, community services, revitalization and stabilization, and projects that create permanent jobs, which benefit LMI areas,
• $750,000 in philanthropy, targeting donations to organizations that create and preserve affordable housing and workforce development, plus those that provide housing counseling and promote financial and economic inclusion,
• $60,000 in marketing and communications to benefit clients and communities in LMI and majority-minority census tracts.
• First Financial has also committed to open a new branch located in an LMI area to better serve the community.

“We are bringing the same community-first approach to Chicago and Northeast Ohio that has been the hallmark of First Financial Bank for years,” said Roddell McCullough, chief corporate responsibility officer for First Financial. “This is an ambitious plan, and we’re excited to be collaborating with our community partners to bring these ideas to life.” 

Since 2016, NCRC has facilitated more than 30 community benefits plans with bank groups that committed more than $600 billion for mortgage, small business and community development lending, investments and philanthropy in LMI and under-resourced communities.

The following NCRC member organizations signed on to the plan:

Benjamin Rose
Chicago Community Loan Fund
Community Shelter Board
Freedom Equity Inc.
Homes on the Hill CDC
Housing Action Illinois
Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME)
Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership
Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio
Miles Heights Development Corporation
Ohio CDC Association
Our Home Family Resource Center
The Cedric Group/Norwood Together
The Housing Partnership, Inc.
Woodstock Insitute

“As a First Financial Bank Advisory Board member, I have witnessed the bank’s commitment and transparency in meeting its CBA goals to better the communities it serves,” said Kevin Draiss, director of Our Home, Inc.

“This agreement reflects what community-informed investment should look like—targeted, accountable and built for impact,” said Meredith Whitehead, CEO and executive director of The Cedric Group/Norwood Together.

“We are pleased to see First Financial collaborate with NCRC to develop a comprehensive plan for community development,” said Stephan Torsell, executive director of Homes on the Hill CDC. “The process of developing the agreement provided an additional opportunity for additional considerations from First Financial through their conversations and negotiations with NCRC and member organizations. We look forward to working with First Financial to improve our communities.”

Summary of the Community Benefits Plan Addenda Between The National Community Reinvestment Coalition and First Financial Bank

Through two acquisition-linked addendums extending its Community Benefits Plan to 2028, First Financial Bank has committed $169,885,000 to underserved borrowers and communities — $104,810,000 reflecting its new Ohio footprint (Westfield acquisition) and $65,075,000 reflecting its new Chicagoland presence (BankFinancial acquisition). 

Westfield Addendum — $104,810,000

The Westfield addendum reflects First Financial Bank’s new footprint in Ohio following the Westfield acquisition, adding to the final three years of the existing CBP term through 2028.

Mortgage Lending to LMI Communities and Borrowers

Commitment: $9,000,000

FFB commits to retaining at least one Community Development Mortgage Loan Originator (CD MLO) in the Westfield footprint.

Small Business Lending

Commitment: $50,000,000

This commitment represents a 29% increase over Westfield historic production. 

Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI)

Commitment: $45,000,000

FFB commits to at least one Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) deal between $4–8 million.

CRA Focused Philanthropy

Commitment: $750,000

FFB will continue the commitment of Westfield Bank to support the Summit/Medina County United Way with the establishment of a First Financial Bank Family Support Center and ongoing support of their Financial Empowerment Center.

Marketing

Commitment: $60,000

Other Market Commitments

• FFB will open a new branch in an LMI census tract within Westfield’s legacy footprint to better serve the community. FFB will solicit community input as part of the site selection process for the new LMI branch.
• FFB will implement First Financial Bank’s formal volunteer and employee giving programs with the Westfield associates to positively impact LMI individuals and communities.

BankFinancial Addendum — $65,075,000

The BankFinancial addendum reflects First Financial Bank’s new footprint in the Chicagoland area following the BankFinancial acquisition, adding to the final three years of the existing CBP term through 2028.

Mortgage Lending to the Underserved

Commitment: $10,000,000

This merger will increase mortgage lending access in the Chicagoland area after BankFinancial exited retail mortgage lending in 2017. This proposal is based on loan production beginning in 2027, with two Community Development MLOs each producing $2 million in loan production, improving to $3 million each in 2028.

FFB has hired a recruiting firm to identify and attract candidates for the two open Community Development MLO roles and commits to maintaining two CD MLOs in the BankFinancial footprint throughout the agreement.

Small Business Lending

Commitment: $9,000,000

This commitment represents a 38% increase over the BankFinancial historic production.

Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI)

Commitment: $45,000,000

This commitment is based on BankFinancial asset size in comparison to FFB.

CRA Focused Philanthropy

Commitment: $1,000,000

Marketing

Commitment: $75,000

Other Market Commitments

• FFB will implement First Financial Bank’s formal volunteer and employee giving programs with the BankFinancial associates to positively impact LMI individuals and communities.