Category: Community Banking
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CNote Marks 10 Years: More Than $1 Billion Deployed to Community Finance
From individual investors to corporate treasury, a decade of connecting capital with communities Ten years ago, CNote set out to show that financial goals and community impact could advance together. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Catherine Berman and Yuliya Tarasava, two seasoned financial executives determined to rethink how capital works in the modern…
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Before You Call Your Cash “Impact,” Ask These Questions
Impact Cash® is designed to meet an organization’s cash management needs while directing deposits to financial institutions that serve their communities. The institutions receiving those deposits are doing the work. The question for most companies is whether they can describe that work with the same precision they bring to yield, liquidity, and risk. When a…
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Stitching Together Opportunity in Rural Colorado
For Naillali Rodriguez, embroidery is a way to help people make an idea visible. Through Bordame Esto LLC, her custom embroidery and design business in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Rodriguez creates personalized shirts, sweaters, hats, jerseys, and other products for customers across the region. Her work ranges from “Mama” T-shirts and holiday apparel to custom…
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![[Case Study] How One Investor Turned Her Priorities Into an $8 Million Community Finance Strategy](https://www.mycnote.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/blog-banner-2000x800-top-center.png)
[Case Study] How One Investor Turned Her Priorities Into an $8 Million Community Finance Strategy
Many investors know what they want their wealth to support. The harder part is translating those priorities into an investment strategy that also reflects their requirements for risk, returns, liquidity, and privacy. One investor came to Bespoke Group with a clear objective. She wanted her capital to expand opportunity for women and underestimated entrepreneurs and…
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Building New Housing on a Formerly Vacant Site in Trenton
Across the country, communities are confronting a shortage of rental housing alongside rising construction costs and growing pressure on household budgets. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that nearly half of renter households spent at least 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2024, while one in four…
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Corporate Cash Does Not Need a New Impact Budget. It Needs a Philosophy.
A cash policy protects the company. It defines where cash may be held, how much liquidity must remain available and which risks treasury can accept. A cash philosophy asks a different question: within those boundaries, what should eligible cash accomplish? I have heard a version of this question at nearly every treasury event I have…
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How Flexible CDFI Financing Turned a Formerly Vacant Factory into Senior Housing
For more than 50 years, the old Carnation Milk factory stood silent on the edge of downtown Tupelo, Mississippi. The massive brick building, once a source of local jobs and economic activity, had become a reminder of decline. Since the plant closed in 1972, the property had cycled through temporary uses as city offices, a…
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Watch Me Grow Daycare: Expanding Opportunity for Children, Families, and Community Through Access to Capital
For more than a decade, Hazel Gardner has dedicated her life to helping children learn, grow, and thrive. A longtime educator with the Mobile County Public School System, Hazel understood firsthand the critical role that early childhood education plays in shaping a child’s future. She also recognized the challenges working families face in finding safe,…
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Where Your Deposits Are Held: The Infrastructure Behind Impact Cash®
When a treasury team evaluates a new place to put operating cash, yield is only part of the equation. A more fundamental question comes first: Where are the funds actually held, and how are they managed at each step? Impact Cash® is a cash management solution that places institutional deposits with federally insured community financial…
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First Eagle Bank: Advancing Community-Led Housing Solutions in Chicago
Across the country, CDFI banks and mission-driven financial institutions are helping address one of the most persistent challenges facing U.S. communities: the shortage of affordable housing. In Chicago, First Eagle Bank offers a compelling example of what this work looks like in practice, and what it takes to do it well. First Eagle Bank, a…