Eric Weaver Email & Phone Number

Non-profit executive with 35 years of experience in community development finance.Eric founded and grew Opportunity Fund (now Accion Opportunity Fund), the nation’s leading nonprofit micro and small business lender. Educated at Harvard University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Eric combines a deep passion for economic and social justice with a practical and sustainable business-oriented approach to running an organization. Eric ran Opportunity Fund, a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) from 1992 until 2017, and served as a Senior Advisor to new CEO Luz Urrutia for three more years. He was the organization’s first employee and by 2017 he had led it to a $20 million operating budget, over 100 employees and the largest microloan portfolio under management among U.S. nonprofit lenders, at over $100 million. In 2020, Opportunity Fund surpassed $1 billion in total cumulative investment--over $500 million in small and microbusiness loans, with the rest being financing for community facilities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, loans to finance affordable housing and direct cash incentives to help low-income people save money. Eric drew on his early career experience as a community organizer to bring together over 20 community banks to form a for-profit consortium in Opportunity Fund’s early incarnation. Later, he led the company’s conversion into a nonprofit, and its geographic expansion from its roots in San Jose to an organization with offices and people throughout most of California. Today, Opportunity Fund lends in 45 states, through an innovative referral partnership with fintech lender Lending Club, launched under Eric’s leadership. He believes that the keys to Opportunity Fund’s success at scaling up for impact have been strategic partnerships, innovation, recruiting and developing great people, and treating customers with dignity and respect.Eric recently relocated to the Baltimore/DC area--Ellicott City to be exact. He is providing consulting to CDFIs, other non-profit organizations, funders and governmental agencies. He is available to help with executive coaching, board development and governance, strategy, program design, partnerships and mergers, input and editing on grant proposals, and probably several other things.

Listed skills include Philanthropy, Microfinance, Nonprofits, Social Entrepreneurship, and 18 others.