Community Investment Institutions (CIIs) serve people in the U.S. and around the world by providing them with opportunities to borrow, save, and invest in their own communities. While all CIIs utilize investor capital to promote community development in underserved areas, there are substantial differences in the institution types, corporate structures, markets served, and products offered to investors. Click here to learn more about the various types of CIIs.
Throughout the Community Investing Center, we generally use the term Community Investment Institution (CII), but sometimes the resources on this website will use other accepted industry terms to describe themselves, including Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Microfinance Fund.