March 2016 Stories and Data

Built to Scale: Designing a Business with Scale in Mind
St. John Manor
Catonsville CO-OP brings together food, community, and local businesses
A Grand Opening Like No Other

Testimonials

CDFIs exist to help grow local economies, provide housing, and support small businesses.

-Indaria Jones, Cooperative Federal Credit Uniom, Syracuse, NY

We are a Native CDFI serving the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in western NC. Our work here is critical to supporting new business creation, small business growth, job creation and retention, and housing security for tribal members who have historically endured economic hardship and lack of adequate banking and capital resources. Not to be lumped in with the myriad ways government-funded projects and organizations waste tax dollars, our industry has proven itself a superior investment for the U.S. taxpayers and is one our elected officials should be proud to support.

-Russ Seagle, The Sequoyah Fund, Inc., Cherokee, NC

CDFIs are a great, cost-effective way to support development in rural, suburban and urban communities in a public/private finance model heavily weighted to the private side. In our case in enabled locating our manufacturing plant in an area where people needed jobs.

-Don Leeper, Bookmobile, Minneapolis, MN