Frank Altman is President and CEO of Community Reinvestment Fund, USA. He pioneered the development of a secondary market for community and economic development loans when he established the organization. Under Altman’s leadership, CRF has grown from a small Minneapolis firm to a national organization serving community-based lenders across the country.
In addition, Altman is a founding member and first President of the Board of Directors of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. He helped design the creation of a federal tax credit to encourage private investment in low income communities.
Prior to founding CRF, he served as Assistant Commissioner for Financial Management at the Minnesota Department of Energy and Economic Development, where he administered several loan programs designed to create jobs in energy-related industries, promote energy conservation in public and private buildings, and finance manufacturing facilities in small communities. Earlier in his career, he served as Manager of Energy Conservation and Residential Financing Programs at the Minnesota Energy Agency and as a housing officer at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
Most recently in 2014, GIS Planning Inc. of San Francisco, in partnership with fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times in London awarded Altman the Economic Development Innovation Award for his contribution to the field of economic development. Altman was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2013. Ashoka is a global association of roughly 3,000 social entrepreneurs working on issues from healthcare to human rights, from the environment to full economic citizenship. In 2012, Altman was awarded the first annual “Progress Minnesota” Award. The Finance & Commerce “Progress Minnesota 2012” awards program was established to recognize those individuals and companies who drive business and industrial growth and economic development in Minnesota in unique and innovative ways.
In 2008, Altman and CRF received the Social Capitalist Award ("45 Social Entrepreneurs Who are Changing the World") from FastCompany magazine and Monitor Group. Altman was named an Aspen Institute Fellow at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival. Inc. Magazine recognized Frank Altman in its 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year issue as one of the nation's leading social entrepreneurs. The Small Business Administration also recognized him as Financial Services Advocate of the Year in 1993.
He shares his expertise with numerous social and financial organizations across the country, including Center for Community Development Securities of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, The Financial Innovations Roundtable, Wall Street Without Walls, and US SIF - the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment and the US SIF Foundation.