Thank you to our partners at Inclusive and CDBA for sharing data on CDFI Bank and CDFI Credit Union branch locations. In addition, about 100 of our CDFI Stories come from OFN’s story database.
CDFIs have been a vital role in our community by providing low-cost capital to businesses. Capital is not readily available in the rural area I live, so it’s imperative that CDFIs continue to receive funding that helps support small businesses and continue to grow small communities.
CDFIs provided necessary funding and support to communities, including small businesses. Economic opportunity is the path to a unified society.
CDFIs are essential to ensuring all communities and residents have access to safe, affordable credit when traditional financial institutions are not able to do so. These market-based institutions know their communities needs best and leverage private sector investment. Building bridges between the public and private sectors is what CDFIs do well and we need to preserve the expertise of these organizations by ensuring a robust funding of $324 million for the CDFI Fund.
CDFIs are critical to our economy. They step in where banks can’t – or wont – go. They leverage hundreds of millions of private dollars every year and invest them in underserved businesses and communities, based on need and impact. This is an effective, efficient public-private solution to pressing social and economic issues throughout our country.