Origin Story - Accion Opportunity Fund Origin Story - Accion Opportunity Fund
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Origin Story

AOF Origin Story

In 1994, we got our start in San Jose, California as a small, multi-bank consortium called Lenders for Community Development—the precursor to Opportunity Fund, a financial support system for small businesses. Our mission was, and still is, to advance the well-being of working people by helping them earn, save, and invest in their future.

In 1995, we made our first loan—$17,000—to a newly opened aquarium store in East San Jose, owned by two brothers who couldn’t access the working capital they needed from conventional banks. By the end of 1996, we had deployed 18 loans totaling nearly $400,000, and in 1998, we celebrated investing over $1 million in small business loans in the San Jose community.

Looking to create a broader, more holistic impact, we asked ourselves: Could we use savings to help individuals create the financial foundation they’d need for life?

Our answer came in 1999, when we launched a micro-savings program offering matching funds through Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for families and students. This was funded by a public-private partnership: half philanthropic, half from the now-phased-out federal Assets for Independence program. We matched every dollar saved with two dollars. This initiative seeded more than 5,000 new savings accounts and helped low-income Californians buy homes, start businesses, cover college costs, and apply for U.S. citizenship.

By 2005, Lenders for Community Development had applied for and received an allocation of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, designed to stimulate investment in underserved areas. Our first NMTC project was National Hispanic University in San Jose. By the end of FY2018, we had invested over $300 million into community development projects.

We also supported wealth-building through homeownership, providing over $110 million in affordable home loans to finance nearly 9,000 Bay Area housing units. In 2013, we made our final home loan and transitioned our affordable housing work to Housing Trust Silicon Valley.

In 2012, Opportunity Fund expanded into Southern California through the merger acquisition of Financiero Confianza, a for-profit microlender serving LA’s Spanish-speaking population. This move significantly expanded our lending portfolio throughout California—and beyond.

By 2015, high-cost credit products from alternative lenders were flooding the market. In response, we co-founded the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, joining with other CDFIs, advocates, and responsible fintechs like LendingClub and Funding Circle. Together, we developed the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights, a blueprint for responsible small business lending. It influenced the first truth-in-lending law for small businesses—passed in California in 2018 and later in New York.

In 2017, our partnership with LendingClub deepened, allowing us to scale access to fair financing for underserved small businesses across 45 states.

In 2020, we took a transformative step: Opportunity Fund and the Accion U.S. Network merged to create Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF)—the first-of-its-kind national financial institution focused on underserved entrepreneurs.

Today, AOF is the nation’s leading CDFI supporting small businesses led by people of color, women, and low-income entrepreneurs.

In January 2021, we launched our business coaching program with just one coach. Since then, we’ve expanded it into a robust, free resource offering:

  • One-on-one customized coaching
  • Cohort-based learning programs
  • Corporate-sponsored grants
  • Learning and networking events
  • Bilingual (Spanish & English) digital educational content

In May 2022, we launched a digital Coaching Hub, allowing entrepreneurs to:

  • Choose a coach based on needs and language preference
  • Schedule 30-minute sessions via phone or Zoom
  • Access support across topics like business planning, e-commerce, marketing, and more

Our coaches bring real-life experience as small business owners, along with subject matter expertise. In the past year, we added two Credit Advisors to help entrepreneurs:

  • Explore financing options
  • Understand business financials
  • Improve credit readiness

In FY23:

  • 92% of coaching clients were entrepreneurs of color
  • 63% were women
  • More than half of our coaches are people of color
  • Over 80% of our coaches are women—reflecting our commitment to culturally relevant and inclusive support

As the nation’s leading nonprofit microlender, our vision is a truly inclusive financial system—where every small business owner has access to responsible capital, education, coaching, networks, and advice to:

  • Build vibrant businesses
  • Create jobs
  • Generate income
  • Build financial stability and generational wealth

Since our founding 30 years ago, AOF has:

  • Deployed more than $1 billion in nearly 35,000 loans to small businesses
  • In FY23 alone: deployed $75 million to 2,400+ businesses in 45 states
  • 4.5M small business owners have accessed AOF’s free Business Resource Library and over 35,000 have used our business advising, coaching, events and other technical assistance resources.
  • Over 107,000 jobs supported through small business lending and NMTC
  • 67% of AOF’s borrowers who are subprime when they receive their first loan from AOF are near-prime – or better – at payoff