Community Development Financial Institutions
On the local level, you should also check out Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These are community institutions that serve struggling communities and underserved populations. While CDFIs do a lot more than provide affordable loans to needy small businesses (such as mortgages for homebuyers, financing for rental housing rehabilitation, and other needed financial services required by low-income households), a main focus is in fact serving less affluent small business communities with financial services and funding.
The CDFI business-development loans originate from funds made available by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Economic Development Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and other federal sources. The different local CDFI programs and institutions vary by name, but there are more than 1,000 of them nationwide, including:
- Community development banks
- Community development credit unions
- Community development loan funds
- Community development venture capital funds
- Microenterprise development loan funds
- Community development corporations
The preceding list provides the phrases you should Google.
According to CDFI.org: “While the term ‘community development financial institutions’ or ‘CDFI’ is relatively new, the concept itself is part of a rich history of self-help credit. From the immigrant guilds of New York City's Lower East Side and the Prairie Populists of the late 1800s, to African-American ...
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