The U.S. Department of the Treasury has awarded a total of more than $195.4 million to 185 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and other organizations. A CDFI is a specialized entity that provides loans, investments, and services in underserved or economically distressed areas. The Treasury’s CDFI Fund, which certifies and provides support for CDFIs, allocated the awards through the fiscal year 2014 round of its funding programs. Approximately $161 million of the total consisted of Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance (FATA) Awards to 152 certified CDFIs. Twelve of the FATA awardees also received a total of $22.4 million in Healthy Food Financing awards, which support projects that increase access to healthy, affordable food.
Another $12.2 million of the overall total was awarded through the CDFI Fund’s Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program, which is designed to build the capacity of existing or in-development CDFIs and other organizations that serve Native communities. More than $11.7 million of the FATA awards went to organizations headquartered in the Ninth Federal Reserve District, as did nearly $3 million of the NACA awards.
In addition, the CDFI Fund awarded a total of nearly $17.9 million in grants to 69 banks in recognition of their service to economically distressed communities. The grants were made through the CDFI Fund’s fiscal year 2014 round of the Bank Enterprise Awards (BEA) Program, which provides capital to FDIC-insured depository institutions serving census tracts where at least 30 percent of the population lives at or below the federal poverty level and the unemployment rate is at least 1.5 times the national average.
Since its founding in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $1.9 billion in FATA awards, more than $93 million in NACA awards, and approximately $411 million in BEA awards.
