Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released the schedule of the next set of free webinars through the Capacity Building Initiative's "Expanding CDFI Coverage in Underserved Areas" series. The webinars, provided by Opportunity Finance Network and its partners, will be held between January 2016 and April 2016.

The CDFI Fund launched the "Expanding CDFI Coverage in Underserved Areas" series to help fill the gaps in Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) service coverage in underserved communities in the United States and its territories. The free webinars are designed to maximize CDFI industry participation in this important training. The webinars will expand upon training topics developed for in-person training sessions held during the summer of 2015, as well as new topical content on expansion developed by CDFI experts.

The five webinars are:

• Partnerships for Financial Capability (Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 2 p.m. EST): Partnerships are often formed out of a common sense of purpose, but many fail to thrive. How can you build better partnerships? This webinar will describe five keys to success convergent vision, complementary capacities, commitment, confidence, and coordination and present a framework to help prospective partners to build more effective, dynamic, and durable relationships.

• Exploring New Models for CDFI Coverage through Formation of New or Affiliated CDFIs (Tuesday, February 9, 2016, 2 p.m. EST): This webinar presents options for structures CDFIs can consider when forming new or affiliated CDFIs. Not-for-profit and for-profit corporate structures are presented, as well as de novo, acquiring, and evolving formation strategies. The risk and return spectrum will help CDFIs understand the risk-return profile for different types of financing products offered by CDFIs from debt to equity.

• Capitalization Strategies: Raising Debt and Equity for CDFIs (Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 2 p.m. EST): Join us for a webinar on capitalization to explore various sources of capital available to CDFIs. In this webinar, you will learn to develop a plan to access the sources of capital appropriate for your CDFI.

• Customer Acquisition (Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 2 p.m. EDT): New market challenges, increased competition, demand for diversified products, and more selective customers all make it even more imperative to reach and retain the customers your organization needs to grow. Learn how to identify and reach your most important customers.

• Fundraising Strategies for your CDFI (Tuesday, April 5, 2016, 2 p.m. EDT): Join us for a webinar focusing on raising operating capital for your CDFI. We will provide several perspectives from the industry on fundraising during this session. Included in the discussion will be how to find funders, how to build relationships with your funders, and how to effectively tell your organization's story.

Future webinar opportunities will be posted as they are confirmed to the "Expanding CDFI Coverage in Underserved Areas" webpage. Webinars will be recorded and made available on the CDFI Fund's Resource Bank later in 2016.