The U.S. Department of the Treasury has awarded a total of nearly $54.2 million to 89 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) headquartered in 38 states and the District of Columbia. CDFIs are specialized entities that provide loans, investments, training, and other services in underserved or economically distressed areas. The Treasury's CDFI Fund, which certifies and provides support for CDFIs, allocated the awards through its Financial and Technical Assistance programs. The CDFI Fund conducted a competitive review to select the 89 awardees from a pool of 225 applicants. Most of the 2008 awardees are community development loan funds that serve urban areas.
Nine of the financial and technical assistance awards, totaling nearly $4.8 million, went to organizations headquartered in the Ninth Federal Reserve District. Ninth District recipients are Butte Local Development Corporation, Butte, Mont.; First Children's Finance, Minneapolis; Great Falls Development Authority, Inc., Great Falls, Mont.; Metropolitan Economic Development Association, Minneapolis; Montana Community Development Corporation, Missoula, Mont.; Nonprofits Assistance Fund, Minneapolis; Northeast South Dakota Economic Corporation, Sisseton, S.D.; Wolf Point Federal Credit Union, Wolf Point, Mont.; and WomenVenture, St. Paul, Minn.
The financial and technical assistance awards are in addition to a total of $8,224,687 the CDFI Fund awarded earlier this year to 29 organizations that provide lending and other services to Native communities. These awards were made through the CDFI Fund's Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program, which encourages the creation and strengthening of CDFIs that primarily serve Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.
Eight of the NACA awards went to organizations in the Ninth District. They are First Nations Oweesta Corporation, Rapid City, S.D.; Four Bands Community Fund, Eagle Butte, S.D.; Indian Land Capital Company, Little Canada, Minn.; Lakota Funds, Kyle, S.D.; People's Partners for Community Development, Lame Deer, Mont.; Sovereign Leasing & Financing, Inc., Ronan, Mont.; Three Affiliated Tribes, New Town, N.D.; and Turtle Mountain Housing Authority, Belcourt, N.D.
