Guest author: Lane Fury, Northwest New England Loan and Outreach Officer with the Cooperative Fund of New England
Authored by Sydney England, Client Development Manager, LOCUS Impact Investing.
Photo: January 2014 renovation of the Jessie Ball duPont Center. Sherry Magill is pictured secod from the right
South Dakota’s rural CDFIs collaborate often to help businesses in small towns to grow. One example is Tulare Country Meats, a locker and custom meat processor in the small town of Tulare, SD.
Deutsche Bank has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for their Native Community Capital Access Program. The program will make available up to $2.5 million to spur community development, entrepreneurship, and financial well-being within Native communities.
In 2015, Wells Fargo launched the Diverse Community Capital (DCC) program in response to issues identified in a Gallup Survey commissioned to gain deeper insight into the attitudes, needs, and motivations of diverse small business owners. The national survey’s findings revealed that diverse small businesses were challenged to access the credit needed to launch or grow their business. This is just one of the findings that prompted our $75 million commitment to support CDFIs serving diverse small businesses. Since the program launched, more than 180 organizations have submitted an Interest Form describing the access to capital gaps in their target markets and their strategies to address those gaps.