This past month, our efforts to help strengthen underserved small businesses got a big-time boost. We were honored to receive a $560,000 award from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund Program!
We’ll be using this funding to help us continue to provide loans to BIPOC-, women-, and low-income-owned businesses in Allegheny County. These businesses are vital to our communities and the economy, so the support from the CDFI Fund is monumental in helping underserved local businesses prosper for years to come.
The CDFI Fund plays an important role in generating economic growth and opportunity in some of our nation’s most distressed communities. By offering tailored resources and innovative programs that invest federal dollars alongside private sector capital, the CDFI Fund serves mission-driven financial institutions that take a market-based approach to supporting economically disadvantaged communities.
And we weren’t the only PA CDFI to receive funding. The Progress Fund, Reinvestment Fund, PIDC Community Capital, Enterprise Center Capital, Community First Fund, JARI Growth Fund, and Invest PGH all received support as well. Graham Steele, CDFI Fund assistant secretary for financial institutions, explained how the funding will impact underserved areas not just locally but around the country.
“The question of who can access credit and capital – and who can’t – is at the root of many long-term structural problems in our economy,” he said. “By channeling more capital into CDFIs, we are reaching places and communities that the financial sector historically hasn’t served well – and by doing so, we are helping to create an economy that works for everyone.”
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