CDFIs provide a critical service to low-income entrepreneurs who are generally excluded from traditional financing to receive business training services and access to affordable capital to help them start their own microenterprises and thus improve their family’s and community’s economic stability.
CDFIs provide critical support to low- to moderate-income communities in the form of loans and technical assistance. This support provides individuals and businesses unable to access traditional financing the opportunity to build their financial acumen, responsibly manage debt while building credit scores and wealth, and eventually graduate to accessing traditional banking products. In the meantime, these individuals are able to start or expand businesses, become homeowners, purchase vehicles, and access capital to cover emergency situations. CDFIs played a critical role with this activity during the pandemic and are part of the essential fabric when it comes to uplifting local economies and providing individuals with a path to the American dream of homeownership and prosperity in a way that promotes self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy. One estimate is that Small businesses