More than 60 organizations serving economically distressed communities throughout the country will be receiving combined grants of nearly $53 million from the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Program, the program’s director announced Friday.
The CDFI Fund invests in and builds the capacity of existing private, for-profit and nonprofit community-based lending organizations that have been deemed Community Development Financial Institutions. These organizations primarily serve rural and urban low-income communities across the country, helping to provide citizens with access to affordable financial products and services.
Through its 2009 fiscal year funding – which is financed through annual appropriations from Congress – the CDFI program will award 62 of these organizations in 24 states (including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) with financial assistance so they can support their communities.
"The financial assistance awards provided through the CDFI Program build the capacity of CDFIs so that they can increase lending activities in underserved, economically distressed communities," said CDFI Fund director Donna J. Gambrell. "As we celebrate this national award announcement, we are also celebrating the work of these community-based lenders that enables the dreams of entrepreneurs to become realities."
The Treasury chose Villa Palermo, a small pizza restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the venue for the announcement "to highlight how CDFIs provide vital financing and support to local businesses and communities," the program announced.
Palermo’s is now "thriving" thanks to an initial $46,250 loan in 1990 from the CDFI program in Milwaukee, one of the four Wisconsin-based award recipients.
The CDFI Program announced that its 2009 fiscal year funding round is now completed, after having received 452 applications from organizations around the country requesting more than $529 million in funding.