How Community Development Financial Institutions Are Creating Jobs Across the Country

The stories spill over one another, each more powerful than the last. The officers at Optus Bank lean forward as they talk, their voices measured but bright, recounting the businesses and visions they’ve backed — not just for a month or two, but often for years.

A holistic health clinic treating 14,000 patients — sometimes four generations at once. An abandoned office building reborn as housing for elderly homeless, primarily veterans. A solar farm rising from empty land, bringing energy and opportunity to an economically overlooked rural town. A shuttered shopping mall transformed into a community center for learning and working.

They tell these stories like they know them inside out, because they do. They took the time to understand the projects and make them work, often after others had walked away.

For 103 years, Optus Bank, in Columbia, South Carolina, has been more than a financial institution.

It’s been a force for change.

As South Carolina’s first Black-owned bank and one of only 23 left in the country, its mission remains as urgent as ever: fueling businesses that create jobs and build a better future for their communities. Though focused on Columbia, it has supported economic opportunities across 48 states.

And the Economic Opportunity Coalition (EOC) is helping make this possible. Incubated by RF Catalytic Capital, a charitable offshoot of The Rockefeller Foundation, the EOC is a bold, historic initiative formed to align private and federal investments toward accelerating opportunity and creating wealth in low-income, rural, and economically underserved communities across America.

The initiative places deposits in U.S. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), allowing them to make more loans. CDFIs are mission-driven financial institutions certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that make at least 60 percent of their loans in economically disadvantaged communities.

More than 30 companies and organizations have joined the EOC and committed to raise $1 billion in deposits for CDFIs. To date, $850 million of this has been deployed to unlock capital in low-income communities.

These deposits are leveraging $8.5 billion in equity investments made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of the Emergency Capital Investment Program signed into law by President Trump during his first administration.

“CDFIs like Optus Bank address the gaps left by traditional financial institutions and add to the breadth and depth of the U.S. financial system, which moves the nation towards providing access to capital and opportunity for all Americans regardless of their zip code,” said Christopher Weaver, the EOC’s Executive Director.

Tereacy Pearson, Marketing and Communications Manager, stands outside Optus Bank. (Photo Credit Masha Hamilton)

At Optus Bank, deposits have increased from $50 million in 2022 to $662 million today. “The Economic Opportunity Coalition contributed to that growth,” said Paul Mitchell, the bank’s Chairman of the Board.

“Every dollar deposited allows us to multiply our impact — leveraging funds tenfold to finance businesses, uplift individuals, and strengthen communities,” added Benita Lefft, President and Chief Operating Officer for Optus.

Though banking and lending are Optus’ primary work, it also runs financial literacy workshops. Columbia, with a population of about 146,500, has a poverty rate of 23.25 percent.

“We’re boots on the ground, recognizing potential and bridging financial gaps,” Lefft said. “These investments don’t just fund businesses—they create jobs, fuel the economy, and change lives.”

Financing a Healthcare Vision

One business with a large footprint is Wellspring Family Medicine, the vision of Dr. Damon Daniels.

“As a young doctor, I began to understand the overwhelming burden of chronic disease faced by the African American population,” Daniels said, “and I wanted to develop a proactive, comprehensive model that took care of the whole person. We’re not just cells and plasma. We’re spirit, mind, and body.”

“Trust is a critical component of primary care. I’m taking care of four generations of families at this point. We’ve had patients come share health concerns they might not have shared with another doctor, and we’ve been able to change their health status, and that’s what motivates me.”

Optus’s Tereacy Pearson and Dr. Damon Daniels stand in the lobby of his new office. “Optus was not just our lender, but our advocate and advisor,” Daniels says. (Photo Credit Masha Hamilton)

Daniels began 17 years ago as a family physician in an office suite attached to a local hospital. Starting with 200 patients, he had 1,000 within a year. His office launched a weight loss program and organized chronic care visits that included nutritional counseling and goal-setting. They moved to a larger facility in 2014, but demand continued to rise, and soon patients seeking care had nowhere to park.

He knew he needed to move to a larger facility. What he didn’t know was how to finance that. “I didn’t have a tremendous amount of cash reserves.”

Optus began working with Daniels in 2021. “We took our time to understand their practice and how they operate,” said Hammond Edwards, the Optus Senior Vice President and Senior Commercial Lender who shepherded the loan.

“The ingredients were there; we just had to get the recipe right,” Edwards said. “But that was nearly a three-year process. A volume-based bank is not likely to have been able to get that done.”

Wellsprings’ 10,000-square-foot facility opened in October, serving 14,000 patients. They’ve also added staff, creating community jobs. Some labor analysts anticipate the healthcare industry could account for 40 percent of added jobs in 2025.

“Optus was not just our lender, but our advocate and adviser,” Daniels said. “We wouldn’t have gotten here without them. When we moved, our patients shed tears of joy. This isn’t just a clinic to them — it’s a trusted medical home, built around their community needs.”