MN06 Stories and Data

MN06 Stories

Braiding Business and Belief
Timely loan weaves a solution to keep St. Cloud salon owner’s business buzzing
Eagles Healing Nest
Aaron Starrett was 18 years old in 2009 when he left his hometown of Austin, Texas, for four years in the Air Force. He served as a munitions specialist in Korea and Germany, helping prepare aircraft with heavy explosives before leaving the military in 2014.
Viva Long Prairie
Opening Viva meant overcoming big hurdles—including financing a major renovation of a century-old building. But Perez stayed true to his approach, chasing solutions until he secured a state revitalization grant and loan support from the Initiative Foundation.
12 Graduate from St. Cloud Enterprise Academy
The Initiative Foundation is celebrating the graduation of 12 entrepreneurs who are dedicated to building their homegrown business ideas in the St. Cloud area.

MN06 Fact Sheet

Testimonials

CDFIs are critical to driving real estate development in underserved communities and during challenging economic times. We have developed more than $100 M in projects using CDFI financing and it is a critical component to the capital stack, as well as important for delivering transformative projects to communities across the country.

-JoAnna Hicks, Element Commercial Real Estate, Minneapolis, MN

As an emerging CDFI serving the state of MN with small dollar consumer lending, this funding is essential to us to help combat predatory lending that strips wealth from low-income communities and allows us to provide stabilizing capital to communities to stay housed, employed, and (re)build credit to reach their asset building goals (e.g. car and home ownership) for the future.

-Anne Leland, Exodus Financial Services (dba Exodus Lending), Saint Paul, MN

Since its inception, the CDFI Fund has been a staunch supporter of CDFIs like MEDA whose mission is focused on rebuilding and stabilizing some of the most impoverished and underserved communities across the country.

-Dorothy Bridges, Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), Minneapolis, MN

Map of MN06 CDFI Branches and Stories