Technology offers powerful opportunities for CDFIs and MDIs to enhance the impact in their communities by achieving greater operational efficiency and meaningful scale. Sometimes resource and staff constrained, it’s essential for MDIs and CDFIs to explore innovative solutions that enable them to do more with less.
The right technological approach can transform how resources are leveraged to maximize community impact. CDFIs and MDIs should take advantage of products specifically designed for their unique customer base, and embrace innovation by adopting solutions that align with their mission. Strategically introducing these solutions can significantly strengthen their ability to provide financial inclusion and support to underserved communities.
Different Types of Technology Solutions to Support Your Mission
Several technology solutions can help your institution expand its reach and deepen its impact within the communities you serve:
- Digital Banking Platforms: Accessible online banking solutions designed specifically for underserved communities can help bridge the digital divide while requiring minimal staff intervention.
- Automated Lending Solutions: Streamlined application processes and automated underwriting tools can help you process more loans with the same staff resources, extending your ability to provide capital where it’s needed most.
- Financial Education Technology: Digital financial literacy platforms can scale your educational outreach beyond what in-person workshops can achieve.
- Payment Management Systems: Solutions that help your small business clients manage their finances more effectively while keeping deposits within your institution.
- Data Analytics Tools: Platforms that provide insights into community needs and help you identify opportunities to better serve low-to-moderate income areas.
Finli Helps You Scale Technical Assistance and Provide Digital Solutions to Underserved Communities
At Finli, financial inclusion and community empowerment drive everything we do. As a certified B Corporation, we’re on a mission to supercharge small businesses through thoughtful financial technology.
We help you scale your technical assistance programs by providing digital tools that can serve more small businesses with fewer staff hours. Our platform enables your institution to offer professional business management solutions to entrepreneurs who might otherwise lack access to such resources. Through Finli, you can digitally deliver financial capability training, payment management education, and business health monitoring to a broader segment of your community.
We partner with forward-thinking institutions to support vibrant, resilient small business communities that might otherwise be left behind in the digital economy. Our integrated receivables solutions simplify payment collection for businesses with limited technological experience, while our business management tools provide clarity and control for entrepreneurs at all levels of financial literacy. The real-time business health insights we offer create transparency that helps both businesses succeed and allows your institution to provide timely support when needed.
We’re building the tools your institution wants to offer small business clients in underserved communities but may not have the resources or technical capabilities to develop independently.
The Solution for Financial Institution Partners
We provide a comprehensive suite of small business solutions that help expand your digital service offerings and attract entrepreneurial clients. Our platform enables you to help your customers overcome their greatest business challenges with practical tools designed for success. You can differentiate your institution from competitors by offering advanced, trusted financial tools within your brand environment.
Through Finli’s invoicing and payment links, customer payments settle directly into your financial institution. We’re particularly valuable for your small businesses that aren’t yet ready for traditional merchant processing solutions. Rather than losing them to Venmo, Square, Stripe, or PayPal, you can prevent deposit leakage while offering a professional tool that meets their needs. This approach simultaneously drives core deposits for your institution.
Finli is CRA eligible, which means your funding banks can receive Community Reinvestment Act credit for purchasing our solutions on your behalf. This creates a valuable opportunity for your banking partners to meet their CRA requirements while supporting your mission through technology that directly serves low-to-moderate income communities.
We also help banks and credit unions streamline their payment collection processes. Our fully branded payment links come equipped with SMS and email payment reminders, automatic receipt generation, and QR code issuance for easy payments. All backend processes are handled seamlessly, creating a streamlined solution from start to finish.
Try Before You Integrate
We’re excited to offer a “try before you integrate” approach. You can offer these solutions to your small business clients without complex technical integration and utilize the same tools internally for your own billing systems. The entire process gets up and running in as little as one day through a fully branded environment that’s easy for both clients and team members to navigate.
By partnering with Finli, your institution can embrace financial technology that serves your mission, supports your community, and strengthens your business—all while maintaining the personal touch that makes MDIs and CDFIs so vital to the small business ecosystem.
Takeaways
Technology is not just about modernizing your institution; it’s about expanding your reach to serve more businesses and individuals in your community. With the right digital tools, you can overcome resource limitations and scale your impact in ways that weren’t previously possible. By carefully selecting partners who understand your unique mission and the communities you serve, you can do more with less while staying true to your core values. By leveraging technology solutions like Finli, your institution can support more of these vital businesses, creating economic opportunity and financial inclusion where it’s needed most.
