Melissa McDonald

Melissa McDonald is the Chief Operating Officer of Raza Development Fund—a certified CDFI that serves the Latino community and low-income populations nationally. She is responsible for the operations of all lending components and systems, capitalization strategies, investment management, and new product development. Ms. McDonald assumed her current role in October 2018, having previously served as RDF’s Deputy Chief Investment Officer, where she led the Specialty Finance Team – an inter-disciplinary group of impact investment professionals that provide custom-tailored financing solutions for complex structured transactions involving public/private partnerships, traditional debt, grant capital, and/or tax credit financing, nationwide and was responsible for RDF’s New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) platform to include the deployment of over $200 million in NMTC authority.

Prior to joining RDF in 2012, Ms. McDonald worked at Gannett Company, where she held senior management positions in Human Resources, providing local and regional support for union and non-union employees. She is experienced in policy and procedure development, employee relations, compliance management, compensation, and organizational development.