The development finance industry’s highest honor recognizes a half century of work directing capital to communities

NEW YORK, NY, October 21, 2026. The Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) will present its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award to Daniel Marsh III, who served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Grow America from 2017 to 2026 and spent 40 years with the organization. The award is CDFA’s highest honor. It will be conferred during an awards ceremony on Friday, November 20, at the CDFA National Development Finance Summit in Savannah, Georgia.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the development finance industry across the course of a professional career. Eligibility rests on innovative and lasting contributions that have changed the way development finance programs are operated, managed, and administered, or on significant legislative contributions to the advancement of new development finance tools, strategies, and approaches.

A Career Built in Overlooked Places

Marsh’s work in economic and community development spans more than 50 years across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. He began in 1975 at the City of Newburgh, New York, rising to Executive Director of its Office of Economic Development. Newburgh had lost roughly 1,300 buildings to urban renewal, and the downtown commercial district that had stood since the 1820s was in steep decline. Marsh helped redirect the agency away from demolition and toward preservation and reinvestment, carrying out a revitalization program that secured more than $100 million for a city that had seen 30 years of disinvestment.

Under his leadership Newburgh created what was then the largest contiguous historic district in New York State, and he authored the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, which established its Architectural Review Commission. He was founding director of the Newburgh Local Development Corporation and Executive Director of the City’s Industrial Development Agency, where he created New York State’s first Small Issue Industrial Revenue Bond Pool Financing Program.

Marsh joined the National Development Council in 1986 and spent the next four decades there, serving as Eastern Regional Director of Advisory Services and later as Executive Vice President for Policy and Programs in the Washington office. He is credited with incorporating and building NDC Housing and Economic Development Corporation, the mission-focused affiliate that houses the organization’s Social Infrastructure Program, Tax Leveraged Investment Program, and Federal Home Loan Bank member lending programs.

A Decade Leading Grow America

Marsh became President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2017, the third president in the organization’s history. His tenure included the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the organization scaled its lending rather than retrenching, delivering relief through vehicles including the NY Forward Loan Fund and the New York State Bar Restaurant Recovery Fund, which distributed $3 million in grants to small restaurants across the state. He oversaw the organization’s evolution from NDC to Grow America, a rebranding that reaffirmed its founding mission, and presided over significant expansion of its New Markets Tax Credit work, affordable housing investment, and social infrastructure practice, directing billions of dollars into communities from coast to coast.

Individual projects across that period show the range of the work. In Yonkers, after an outside architecture firm produced a public library design well beyond what the city could afford, Marsh and Grow America helped the city convert an abandoned industrial building instead, splitting it vertically to give the Board of Education new offices. The project finished ahead of schedule and under budget, and the savings allowed Yonkers to restart arts education programs it had cut. The library anchored the revitalization of a waterfront that now holds restaurants, shops, and public green space. In Brooklyn, Grow America helped restore Kings Theatre, one of the five Loew’s Wonder Theatres, which had sat dark since 1977 and now hosts performances through the year. In 2016 Grow America launched the Community Impact Loan Fund, which pairs flexible capital with pre-loan and post-loan guidance for women-owned and minority-owned small businesses in New York.

Marsh stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2026 and continues with Grow America as Special Advisor to the President.

In Their Words

“I started in Newburgh in 1975, in a city that had lost about 1,300 buildings and most of its confidence. What I learned there I have been applying ever since. Capital goes where it is invited, and our job in this field is to do the inviting on behalf of places that have nobody else making the case for them. An award like this really belongs to the people who do that work every day, at Grow America and across this industry, usually without anyone noticing,” said Daniel Marsh III. “I am grateful to CDFA for noticing.”

“Dan’s fingerprints are on nearly every part of this organization, and on a good deal of the development finance field beyond it,” said Adam Ennis, President and CEO of Grow America. “He spent 40 years arguing that capital belongs in places other people had written off, and he was usually right. Everyone here is glad to see CDFA recognize it.”

“The Lifetime Achievement Award is reserved for people whose contributions have changed how this industry works, and Dan Marsh meets that standard,” said Toby Rittner, DFCP, President and CEO of CDFA. “His work in program design, in community development finance, and in training the practitioners who carry this field forward has had a lasting effect on development finance in this country.”

About the Summit

The CDFA National Development Finance Summit takes place November 18 to 20, 2026, in Savannah, Georgia, bringing together practitioners, lenders, dealmakers, and public officials from across the development finance field. The awards ceremony honoring Marsh and other recipients is scheduled for Friday, November 20, at 11:00 a.m. Grow America and CDFA entered a strategic partnership in August 2025 to expand joint training, technical assistance, and capital access programming for the field.

Key Facts

• CDFA will present its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award, the organization’s highest honor, to Daniel Marsh III.
• The award will be conferred Friday, November 20, 2026, at the CDFA National Development Finance Summit in Savannah, Georgia.
• Marsh served as President and CEO of Grow America from 2017 to 2026, capping 40 years with the organization and more than 50 years in economic and community development.

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About Grow America: Founded as a national nonprofit in 1969, Grow America, formerly NDC, has worked for over half a century fulfilling our mission to increase the flow of capital for investment in low-income communities. We direct capital to support the development and preservation of affordable housing, the creation of jobs through training and small business lending, and the advancement of livable communities through investment in social infrastructure. Learn more at growamerica.org.

About CDFA: The Council of Development Finance Agencies is a national association dedicated to the advancement of development finance concerns and interests. CDFA brings together the development finance community through education, advocacy, research, resources, and networking opportunities, advancing development finance knowledge, networks, and innovation. Learn more at cdfa.net.

Contact: Allison Kelly, Director of Communications, AKelly@growamerica.org