Mentorship has found many people in unexpected places and had an immense impact on their lives. Whether you are searching for it through wonderful organizations like Pass The Torch For Women or find it in a manager at your work, a good mentor can change the trajectory of your life. The mentorship Ashley Bridges found at her first finance role put her on the path to Pass The Torch To Women, community impact, and the CDFI industry. 

What is a CDFI?

CDFI is an acronym that stands for community development financial institution. These CDFIs are specialized lenders with “a mission to provide fair, responsible financing to rural, urban, Native, and other communities that mainstream finance doesn’t traditionally reach”. Along with lending to individuals, organizations, and businesses, CDFIs also offer client financial education, business coaching, and low-interest rate loans. Intend Indiana is a local CDFI with the goal to “create and preserve affordable housing, support neighborhood revitalization efforts, and foster small business development” in the Indianapolis area. We had the opportunity to talk to Ashley Bridges, a Build Fund Portfolio Manager at Intend, to learn more about her role and journey into the industry.

Early Career

Ashley graduated from Ivy Tech in 2012 with a degree in nursing administration, but fell in love with the financial side of business and started her career journey at Fifth-Third Bank. Even though she loved her work there, she often felt unsupported by the people around her. Before Ashley left Fifth-Third, she was the only African American woman manager out of seventeen branches. She felt that her voice and ideas weren’t being heard and her light was being dimmed. She said it was hard to hear “people telling you that you can’t follow your passion, even though you’re bringing in clients”. This led her to leave this role and start her career with Intend Indiana

Why Intend Indiana?

Ashley was recruited to Intend Indiana due to her previous experience with lending combined with her long history of community outreach. In 2022, she was able to do around 375 volunteer hours, 280 in 2023, and 80 hours in 2024. Ashley had an ultimate goal of filing social capital within the community and believed Intend Indiana was an amazing place to do this. Another benefit that Intend provided that Ashley couldn’t find at a traditional banking job was that she didn’t have to say no. In her current role, Ashley’s greatest challenge is having to tell clients not right now and having to refer them. According to Ashley, Intend Indiana “prides themselves on not saying no” instead telling clients to “work on these things and come back to us [or] provide them the resources to get their finances together”. 

Day In The Life

As a Build Fund Portfolio Manager, Ashley’s days tend to vary, but are often filled with meetings and calls with business owners looking to lend and clients looking to receive funding. She holds consultations with other business owners to tell them what Intend Indiana does with the goal of building relationships and making lending as fun as possible. After meeting with them, Ashley does additional research into the business to create a profile to present to internal and loan committees. She works with lenders and borrowers from intake to loan closing to ensure that they are best serving their target market of women and other target populations. 

“It’s amazing to be able to give back in the non-traditional lending space!” – Ashley Bridges

Role of Mentorship

Ashley became involved with Pass the Torch for Women when she attended an event down the street from her house because she wanted to meet new people. She later joined the organization and is now a mentor, but mentorship had already been a large part of her career journey. During her time at Fifth-Third Bank, Ashley did a lot of coaching and mentoring of diverse candidates within her work. She is even currently partnered with a mentor who is in the same industry as her so they can work together to grow and improve. Ashley saw the benefit and major role that mentoring played in her career journey and decided to bring her mentorship ability and her community outreach together at Pass the Torch for Women.

Advice for Others

Looking back on her career journey, Ashley had amazing advice for people starting out at a CDFI. The first was to get into the CDFI industry, you need to be passionate about the work. Ashley’s day to day doesn’t just consist of lending money, she acts as a source of knowledge and growth potential for the individuals, organizations, and business she works with. To succeed in the field, you need to be passionate about helping others to achieve their dreams.

Her second bit of guidance was about staying open when it comes to your career path. It may be that you are on a road that suits you currently, but that does not mean you can’t (or shouldn’t) pivot later. Ashley started off in nursing but ended up in finance. She fell in love with the industry and decided to make the switch even though she already had a degree in nursing. She wants people who are just starting out their careers to know that it’s okay if you don’t go down the path you thought you were meant for. 

Continue Passing the Torch

Ashley was able to find her place in the CDFI industry due to the amazing mentors she had throughout her career and is now able to share the knowledge she’s gained with her mentees.

It may be that Ashley’s journey resonates with you, or helps you understand how everyone can have an impact on the women coming up the ranks behind them. If so, we hope you will consider becoming a mentor through Pass the Torch for Women. Mentorship can shape someone’s career, and you could be the mentor to start them on that path

“I can be this person.” – Pass The Torch For Women

References

Home: Community development financial institutions fund. Home | Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. (n.d.). https://www.cdfifund.gov/

What is a CDFI?. OFN. (2025, April 17). https://www.ofn.org/what-is-a-cdfi/