MN03 Stories and Data

Braiding Business and Belief
Eagles Healing Nest
Viva Long Prairie
12 Graduate from St. Cloud Enterprise Academy

We want ALL entrepreneurs to have access to capitol to support their businesses. Especially those that may be deemed unbankable.

-Renay Dossman, NDC, Saint Paul, MN

As a CDFI, we support areas that have had historical underinvestment and see a transformative impact to those communities over time. The CDFI fund has an excellent private investment track record that accompanies the Treasury investment, leveraging the funds at an $8 or more for every $1 from the CDFI fund. This helps incentivize investment in these communities, bringing greater prosperity to all and putting all Americans to work that can access these programs.

-Todd Sharkey, Sunrise Banks, St Paul, MN

I am a real estate broker and development consultant working with emerging developers, small businesses and nonprofits. Many of my clients cannot finance their projects with traditional debt and equity because they don’t come from generational wealth and because their projects are more challenging because they are in markets that are not achieving their full potential yet or meeting critical community needs that don’t produce quite as much profit. CDFI lending has stepped in the gap to solve dozens of critical projects that just need a little boost to get to the finish line, and CDFIs are critical partners to Platform’s work.

-Renee Spillum, Platform Commercial Real Estate, SBC, Saint Paul, MN