CDFIs in Action Tours - The 2026 OFN Conference

CDFIs in Action Tours are one of the highlights of the OFN conference each year. Take advantage of the unique opportunity to explore New Orleans through the lens of our locally-based, CDFI member co-hosts, as they showcase their work in communities across the city. These tours will offer an in-depth perspective on the diverse, vibrant landscape of the greater New Orleans area and a firsthand look at the tangible impacts of CDFIs in the region.

Please note tour availability is limited and there is a separate, non-refundable registration fee. 

Description: Step aboard the new Amtrak Mardi Gras line and experience one of the Mississippi Gulf Coast's most inspiring comeback stories. This excursion takes you by rail from New Orleans to the charming coastal community of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi—a true example of resilient recovery, thoughtful planning, and small business-driven economic development.

You will be welcomed at the Bay St. Louis Community Center to enjoy a light breakfast featuring local favorites, mimosas, and opportunities to connect with fellow attendees before hearing from community leaders who played key roles in the city's recovery and revitalization. Through conversations with local leaders, entrepreneurs, and community champions, you'll gain firsthand insight into how a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina transformed itself into a thriving destination known for its vibrant downtown, strong sense of place, and commitment to sustainable growth.

Following the program, enjoy free time to experience Bay St. Louis at your own pace. Stroll the award-winning historic downtown, browse locally owned boutiques and galleries, relax along the waterfront, and discover why this coastal community has become one of the Gulf South's most beloved destinations. Maps and recommendations will be provided to assist your exploring. Community Ambassadors will also be available for questions and to provide transportation around the community via golf cart.

Please note that this tour will depart from the hotel at 6:30 AM. Price includes a light breakfast upon arrival in Bay St. Louis. Attendees should bring money for additional food and exploring the charming community of Bay St. Louis.

Mode of transportation: Train, Tour Bus, Walking

Fees: Member: $250, General: $350

Description: Ground your CDFI work in living history while building for the future. This tour will feature future-minded, weather-resilient investment projects in the Lower 9th Ward and a visit to the TEP Center. Located in a historic desegregated public-school building, the TEP Center showcases how historic preservation tax credits, targeted investments, and partnerships can honor civil rights history while driving equity.

Finance New Orleans, a publicly chartered, independent housing and development finance agency, will discuss their Resilient New Orleans Finance Plan and lead a visit to a resilient rental housing site.

A networking lunch at the TEP Center will be paired with a guided tour of the historic Civil Rights exhibitions.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $250, General: $350

Description: What happens when mission-driven capital, corporate partners, public agencies, and community leaders align around a shared vision for transformational investment?

Join TruFund Financial Services for an immersive field study showcasing how strategic partnerships and innovative financing tools are transforming communities across Baton Rouge. Throughout the day, you will experience a portfolio of catalytic investments made possible through collaboration among TruFund, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Louisiana Economic Development, Build Baton Rouge, Entergy, the AdvancingCities initiative, and other community partners.

From entrepreneurship and workforce development to healthcare, behavioral health, and community revitalization, each stop demonstrates a different approach to community finance and illustrates how flexible capital can create measurable social and economic impact.

The experience concludes with the grand opening and ribbon-cutting celebration of the Post Trauma Institute of Louisiana, where attendees will participate in a press conference, tour the new facility, and celebrate the collective impact of mission-driven investment.

This experience offers you an inside look at how community finance extends far beyond lending to become a catalyst for neighborhood transformation, institutional growth, and lasting community impact.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $250, General: $350

Description: This tour will showcase the first developments in New Orleans that combine affordable housing with early childhood education (ECE) centers.

The Wilcox Academy campus and Inquisitive Thinkers / Firehouse developments are two innovative models situated in Central City, an area that has been facing displacement pressures resulting from significant redevelopment. You will hear how local ECE providers partnered with development firms to add more than 200 childcare seats along with affordable housing to the greater LaSalle Corridor in Central City. Partners will share how they built trust and partnerships, secured properties, assembled complex private and public development and operating funding, including tax credits and a local ECE grant resulting from a new voter-supported tax.

The tour will include a visit to the newest location of Wilcox Academy and Inquisitive Thinkers / Firehouse, both of which were completed in Summer 2026 and feature complementary affordable housing and ECE on the same campus.

These developments also book-end Harmony Oaks, a large HOPE VI public housing complex that was redeveloped after Hurricane Katrina.

The tour will conclude at Wilcox Academy at Southern University of New Orleans, another ECE center that has operated since 2023. Snacks will be provided at this final location. Both co-location sites are a testament to community development that serves children, families, educators, and the neighborhoods that they call home.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $200, General: $300

Description: This half-day experience explores how modern CDFI capital nurtures community anchors that preserve culture, offer accessibility, and serve as nodes of strength in neighborhoods. Departing from the New Orleans Marriott, the tour travels to Algiers to visit Renaissance Place, a premier low-income senior and disability housing development. You will explore how accessible residential architecture integrates with community technology libraries to create an ecosystem of neighborhood support. While on-site, a targeted panel will discuss strategies for layering capital across arts, literacy, and special-needs housing projects.

The tour culminates in Central City at the legendary, newly restored Dew Drop Inn, where you will tour this historic civil rights and music landmark—revitalized through community development finance—and conclude the afternoon with a private, catered dinner celebrating New Orleans' community arts legacy.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $200, General: $300

Description: Come tour projects that are being developed by members of Enterprise Community Partners’ New Orleans Equitable Path Forward cohort.

Equitable Path Forward is a national initiative that addresses the needs of economically and socially disadvantaged housing providers by filling capital gaps, providing advisory services and technical assistance, building community and professional networks, and creating new career pathways to expand leadership opportunities in real estate.

After five years of progress made through Enterprise’s Equitable Path Forward (EPF)—namely, $1+ billion invested, more than 11,500 homes created or preserved, and over 100 developers supported, the result includes more affordable housing created by and for the communities who need it most.

Visit communities created by New Orleans-based EPF developers, including New Orleans Restoration Properties, People’s Housing+, Iris Community Development, and Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative.

These EPF Peer Network members will showcase a diverse range of projects, from historic preservation and adaptive reuse affordable housing to mixed-use developments, single-family redevelopment, and innovative community-driven revitalization efforts.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $200, General: $300

Description: New Orleans is a city that counts itself in wards. Ask anyone here where they're from, and they won't give you a zip code; they'll give you a ward and a neighborhood. The 7th Ward is our second largest, and it is the ground where NewCorp is putting its newest work.

This is not a sightseeing ride. It's a visioning tour, and you're part of it. Along the route, we'll put real questions in front of you about ownership, capital, and what it actually takes to move a neighborhood from surviving to owning.

Here's the frame: Roughly 60 percent of New Orleans lives somewhere on the spectrum from impoverished, to working poor, to swimming upstream toward the middle class. Wages here are below sea level, so even our professional class struggles to reach the national average. Our communities are neither resilient nor sustainable. They lack resources, and they perceive themselves as having no power. They are wrong about that last part, and NewCorp exists to prove it.

NewCorp is in the business of ownership. With our newly awarded 501(c)(3) designation for the 7th Ward Revitalization Program, we're building the pathway for residents to govern and own their piece of the earth.

Come see the blueprint on the ground.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $200, General: $300

Description: What does it take to build not just successful businesses, but thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and resilient commercial corridors? Join TruFund Financial Services for an immersive journey that explores the powerful intersection of community finance, entrepreneurship, historic preservation, and place-based investment.

Your experience begins at Propeller, one of New Orleans' premier entrepreneurial hubs, where you'll discover how CDFIs, technical assistance providers, philanthropic organizations, government agencies, and ecosystem partners work together to help entrepreneurs launch, grow, and sustain their businesses. Through an interactive marketplace, participants will meet local entrepreneurs and experience firsthand how mission-driven capital and collaborative partnerships fuel economic opportunity.

From there, the journey continues to historic Bayou Road, one of the oldest roadways in New Orleans and a nationally recognized center of Black entrepreneurship. Often referred to as New Orleans' Black Wall Street, Bayou Road tells a remarkable story of resilience, community ownership, and intentional reinvestment. Guided by local business owners and preservation leaders, participants will explore how this historic corridor is being reimagined as a model for inclusive economic development while preserving the rich cultural heritage that has defined it for generations.

The experience culminates at the André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, where Dr. Kim Carter Evans, Executive Vice President of TruFund Financial Services, will moderate a fireside conversation with community leaders, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem partners. Together, they will explore the future of community finance, the importance of preserving historic commercial corridors, and the role CDFIs play in expanding economic opportunity while strengthening the communities they serve.

This is more than a neighborhood tour. It is an opportunity to experience how strategic partnerships, mission-driven capital, and community leadership are working together to reimagine one of America's most historic Black business districts and to consider how these lessons can inspire similar transformations in communities across the country.

Price includes food and beverage on the tour.

Mode of transportation: Tour Bus

Fees: Member: $200, General: $300