PLATINUM2023

CREDIT BUILDERS ALLIANCE INC

aka Credit Builders Alliance   |   Washington, DC   |  http://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/

Mission

Credit Builders Alliance\u0027s mission is to help organizations move people from poverty to prosperity through credit building. We do this by building the capacity of our nonprofit and municipal members to implement strategies necessary to help their clients build credit and enter the financial mainstream. CBA fills a void by being a conduit for credit building activities for nontraditional financial services providers. Our activities fall along a continuum, which allows CBA to meet our members\u0027 needs at whatever point they may be in the credit building process. In addition, we offer ongoing access to online tools and resources, webinars, and learning platforms for and among our powerful network of over 500 member organizations.

Ruling year info

2008

Chief Executive Officer

Dara Duguay

Main address

1701 K St, NW Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20006 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

20-8351782

NTEE code info

Economic Development (S30)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2020, 2019 and 2018.
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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Unfortunately, for many of the 64 million Americans with no or thin credit files, the ability to establish a good credit history is hampered by lack of access to affordable mainstream credit building financial products. A disproportionately large number of these individuals are low-income and many live in areas underserved by traditional financial institutions. They depend on predatory financial service providers who do not report their borrowers' on-time payments to the credit bureaus. Thus, many of these low-income households find themselves trapped in a vicious credit cycle: the use of predatory financial products prevents them from building good credit and their impaired or nonexistent credit furthers their ongoing dependence on asset stripping alternative financial products. Quite simply, credit invisibility means fewer economic opportunities for these consumers, when, in fact, low-and moderate-income families need more financial options not less.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

CBA Membership

Enhance your knowledge of current issues and developments in the field of credit building. CBA membership offers you a variety of educational and professional opportunities for program advancement. Each month, CBA produces webinars and newsletters that highlight credit-building best practices, insights, and trends from a variety of key stakeholders. We also provide discounts on training and consulting services to members, along with a growing list of preferred providers for special products and pricing that can help you deliver on your organization’s mission.

Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people

CBA Reporter

CBA Reporter is an award-winning, one of a kind service that offers nonprofit and municipal lenders the technical assistance, concrete solutions, and interagency connections they need to effectively and efficiently help their low- and moderate-income clients build credit and
long-term financial capability by reporting their low- and moderate-income borrowers' monthly microenterprise, small business, and consumer loan payments to the major consumer credit bureaus Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

CBA offers a streamlined on-boarding process for guiding lender members through the credit bureau credentialing process in order to report their loans and supports the regular transmission of that loan repayment data. CBA provides ongoing and on-demand technical assistance to member lenders, reviews Metro2 data for accuracy, and monitors their borrowers' eOscar disputes. Today, CBA Reporter enables over 200 nonprofit lenders to report over 63,692 trade lines every month, totaling $2.1 billion in credit extended to their respective borrowers to start a business, meet a household need, and/or simply build positive personal and business credit history.

CBA Business Reporter

CBA Business Reporter allows nonprofit lenders to report business loans to two commercial credit databases. CBA Business Reporter service sends monthly commercial loan data to create or build credit histories for businesses rather than individual business owners. Coupled with CBA Reporter, Business Reporter creates options for entrepreneurial borrowers to grow their business and graduate more quickly to mainstream business financing sources.

CBA Access

CBA Access enables nonprofits to pull and purchase credit reports and credit scores from the major credit bureaus Transunion and Experian, and in 2018 expanded this service to include access to reports produced by LexisNexis (for access to non-traditional and alternative credit data), Nova Credit (for access to overseas credit data), and ChexSystems (for those working with the unbanked). CBA Access offers qualified members access to these reports at pooled prices in order to underwrite loans, provide financial counseling and credit coaching, and -- with some contractual restrictions -- track the credit improvement outcomes of clients.

Like CBA Reporter, CBA implements a streamlined on-boarding process to guide nonprofits through the credit bureau credentialing process in order to access their clients' consumer credit reports. CBA also offers on-demand technical assistance and support to nonprofits
around general credit report reviews and codes, credit report score intricacies and other information relevant to members and their clients around credit reports and scores.
Today, CBA Access enables more than 300 nonprofits engaged in lending and/or financial education to pull between 8000 to 10,000 credit reports a month from Transunion and Experian.

Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people

The CBA Training Institute helps financial capability practitioners develop and enhance credit building programming and implementation strategies and offers a variety of services, tools, and support for different practitioner needs.

Our signature Credit as an Asset training services help organizations:

•Understand credit building as a distinct financial
capability strategy that meets clients where they are
and helps them achieve their goals
•Explore tools to develop and enhance credit building
programming; and
•Engage with and learn from CBA’s growing Credit
Building Community.

CBA's Training Institute provides comprehensive tools, resources and hands-on training for community builders to help their clients build the credit needed to achieve financial self-sufficiency and build wealth.

Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Total dollars loaned to organizations

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CBA Fund is a subsidiary of CBA. It is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Intermediary lender

Number of donations made by board members

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Social and economic status, Ethnic and racial groups

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

The Board is comprised of 19 individuals. Each year CBA has 100% participation by the Board in giving a personal donation to CBA.

Total dollar amount of grants awarded

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CBA's subsidiary CBA Fund gives capacity building grants to CBA's lender members.

Number of consulting projects completed

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Related Program

CBA Training Institute

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of organizations accessing technical assistance offerings

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Related Program

Bureau Services

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CBA's membership consists of nonprofit organizations. This metric relates to the number of members who accessed technical assistance that CBA provides.

Number of downloads of the organization's materials and explanations

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Social and economic status, Ethnic and racial groups

Related Program

CBA Training Institute

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

This metric relates to the number of new users for CBA's training institute website.

Total number of organization members

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Incarcerated people, Ethnic and racial groups

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Total number of new organization members

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Incarcerated people, Ethnic and racial groups

Related Program

CBA Membership

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of conference attendees

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CBA has an annual Symposium

Number of conferences held

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CBA has an annual Credit Building Symposium

Number of national media pieces on the topic

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Credit Builder Alliance (CBA)'s mission is helping nonprofit organizations move people from poverty to prosperity through credit building. CBA was founded for and by nonprofit lenders to fill a critical gap in the delivery of personal economic development, the ability to help individuals build a credit history. The credit report is an individual's financial resume. It is a collection of behavioral indicators widely recognized by the mainstream financial system (i.e. credit utilization rates, payment behavior, etc.), which are used to track and predict behavior and influence access to safe and affordable mainstream financial products. Credit scores, as aggregate measures of financial behavior, are used to define the cost and access to capital and other business services (insurance, internet, merchant services, utilities). That is why CBA's one-of-a-kind arrangement with eight major credit bureaus is so important. It has created an opportunity for nonprofit lenders to report their loan portfolios. Only through CBA can most small- and mid-sized nonprofit lenders report loan repayments to the major consumer/commercial credit bureaus, pull credit reports and purchase credit scores for financial coaching and entrepreneur credit outcome tracking. Prior to CBA, most nonprofit lenders were not able to report directly to the credit bureaus because of threshold barriers (required portfolio size) and staff capacity concerns held by the bureaus. Since CBA's founding in 2006, CBA has transformed nonprofit lender practices and significantly built the capacity of hundreds of nonprofit lenders to report their clients' loan payment history to the bureaus. This has resulted in better loan payment behavior and increased credit scores for individuals, as well as improved loan portfolio quality for the nonprofit lenders.

CBA's platform of services helps shape our members' programs by connecting them to the credit bureaus to report loan payments and to pull reports for underwriting and financial coaching. We support practitioners through training and professional development opportunities, especially resonant these days as there are a lot of changes happening in the credit industry. We promote the replication and scale of safe and responsible credit building products and strategies, and we also advocate for consumer-friendly policies at legislative levels and within the credit industry itself. Every CBA service, program, and task is performed in pursuit of one unified objective; to increase the capacity of nonprofit organizations to effectively support their low- and moderate-income clients in building credit as an asset.

CBA provides technical assistance and capacity building to nonprofits to enhance; (1) data flow between nonprofit lenders and the major credit bureaus to provide loan repayment data; (2) training-led initiatives to access credit report data from the bureaus; (3) financial education strategies and tools around asset-based credit building for entrepreneurs; and (4) understanding of the changing credit economy and the impact on the work of nonprofits to offer effective strategies for low- and very low-income individuals and entrepreneurs to build and sustain their credit history. CBA's work adds significant value to the role of nonprofits in helping underbanked consumers enter the economic mainstream.

CBA's credit building platform is multi-faceted. Through CBA Reporter and CBA Business Reporter, CBA Access, and CBA's Credit as an Asset training program, CBA offers MDOs critical strategies, tools and the key mechanisms necessary to help entrepreneurs build credit and enter the financial mainstream. The following summarizes CBA's three core services: Reporter and Business Reporter currently enables 219 nonprofit lenders to report approximately 77,000 trade lines every month (totaling $2.7 billion in credit extended to their microenterprise, small business, and consumer loan borrowers) to the major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, Experian Business and Dun & Bradstreet. CBA's members can offer their clients not only a loan to launch a business or meet a household need, but the ability to build positive personal and business credit history. CBA Access currently enables 326 nonprofits engaged in lending and/or financial education to get credentialed to pull approximately 107,000 credit reports annually at reduced prices from the major credit bureaus TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, LexisNexis, Nova Credit and FIS ChexSystems to underwrite loans, provide financial education, help the unbanked, and track client and program outcomes. CBA Credit as an Asset training has been offered since 2008 to nonprofit lender practitioners, financial coaches and educators, social service providers and others working directly with consumers and entrepreneurs to promote financial stability and inclusion. The training aims to help participants understand credit building and credit education as a foundational component of any successful asset-building program for underserved clients. Participants receive the knowledge and tools to incorporate into existing programs or to develop new credit building and education programs. Through CBA's core services, hundreds of thousands of clients are reached collectively every year through our 563 members. Of these, an estimated 80% are low-income or very-low income and 15% are modest income.

Financials

CREDIT BUILDERS ALLIANCE INC
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

CREDIT BUILDERS ALLIANCE INC

Board of directors
as of 02/21/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Donovan Duncan

Urban Strategies, Inc

Courtney Brinkman

TransUnion

Eric Ellman

Consumer Data Industry Association

Seth Julyan

Opportunity Finance Network

Margaret Libby

MyPath

Cindy Logsdon

Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation

Abigail Lovell

Experian

Derison Puntier

Greater Atlanta Builds Credit

Dwayne Keys

Compass Working Capital

Laurie Husaby

FIS

Kevin Fryatt

WACIF

Shawna Collier

Justine PETERSEN

Chuck Jones

Common Wealth Charlotte

Valecia Quinn

Jewish Family & Career Services

Cy Richardson

National Urban League

Jeff Richardson

VantageScore

Aparna Sarin

Capital One

Dinesh Wadhwani

Equifax

Priscilla Woo

Working Solutions CDFI

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 2/17/2023

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 02/17/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.