Black-Led CDFIs to Help Drive More Than $40 Million in Google Funding to Black-Owned Businesses
Caroline Valvardi
Minority-led CDFIs — like minority-owned businesses — often face an uneven playing field when it comes to accessing capital to grow their organizations and create sustainable, transformative impact in their communities. With support from Google and Google.org, OFN has been able to expand its commitment to reaching a wider pool of member CDFIs with financing, particularly smaller CDFIs and those led by people of color. As we honor Black History Month, we highlight ten Black-led CDFIs serving diverse entrepreneurs across America with the help of Google funding:
- ACT!
Albany, GA
- African Development Center
Minneapolis, MN
- Appalachian Community Capital
Christiansburg, VA
- BBIF
Orlando, FL
- Harlem Entrepreneurial Fund
New York, NY
- People Trust
Little Rock, AR
- The Enterprise Center Capital Corporation
Philadelphia, PA
- True Access Capital
Wilmington, DE
- TruFund Financial Services
New York, NY
- Wacif
Washington, DC
“OFN is proud to support the great work these CDFIs are doing to strengthen our nation’s most underestimated and underinvested communities,” said Amir Kirkwood, OFN’s chief lending and investment officer. “By creating a new model for community development with partners like Google, we can ensure more CDFIs have the resources they need on the ground to achieve equitable recovery and lasting impact.”
In June 2020, following the killing of George Floyd and a new awakening in America to longstanding structural and systemic racism, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company would direct $45 million in loans and $5 million in Google.org grants to invest in Black-owned businesses via CDFIs. Since the launch of the Grow with Google Small Business Fund and Google.org Grant Program less than one year ago, CDFI funding recipients, including those listed above, have committed more than $40.8 million to support Black-owned businesses operating in diverse industries across America, from transportation in Newport, AR, to fashion retail in Washington, D.C.
Learn more about some of the amazing entrepreneurs these CDFIs have supported on OFN’s CDFI Stories page.