PERFORMANCE AND GOVERNANCE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

This paper investigates the influence of board size and board diversity on the performance of Community Development Financial Institutions' operating in the Southeast. The results indicate that at present many CDFI boards are larger than optimal. The results also show that CDFIs generally have well diversified boards and that these organizations' performance is unlikely to improve by further diversifying their boards. However, CDFIs performance may be improved by promoting smaller boards.