www.cdfi.org is the website
of“community development financial institutions” or “CDFI”. Some of the first
organizations dedicated to community development were created out of
governmental efforts to address poverty alleviation and racial discrimination. Community Development Financial Institutions
(CDFIs) are private-sector, financial intermediaries with community development
as their primary mission.
CDFIs using the
self-credit solution to helping low income people. CDFIs supply the tools enabling economically disadvantaged individuals to
become self-sufficient stakeholders in their own future.These tools
include providing financial services, loans, and investments; offering training
and technical assistance services; and promoting development efforts that
enable individuals and communities to effectively use credit and capital.
Rebuilding disinvested communities and making loans to people with limited or
poor credit histories requires more than simply providing access to
conventional loans. It requires the flexibility to adapt lending guidelines to
the needs of borrowers; to accept unconventional collateral for loans; and to
provide education, training, and assistance to potential borrowers. CDFIs conduct
a wide range of financial activities. Community development credit unions and
community development banks supply underserved communities with traditional
retail banking services like savings accounts and personal loans.
Microenterprise development loan funds provide small amounts of business
capital to small scale entrepreneurs.
There are six basic
types of CDFIs: community development banks, community development loan funds,
community development credit unions, microenterprise funds, community development
corporation-based lenders and investors, and community development venture
funds. All are market-driven, locally-controlled, private-sector organizations.
The advantage is
that this is a very good choice for low-income people the disadvantage is that
people hard to get a big amount of money by using CDFIs.
www.eda.gov is a website for Federal Funding Opportunity. Through
its Planning and Local Technical Assistance programs, EDA assists eligible
recipients in developing economic development plans and studies designed to
build capacity and guide the economic prosperity and resiliency of an area or
region. The Planning program helps support organizations, including District
Organizations, Indian Tribes, and other eligible recipients, with Short Term
and State Planning investments designed to guide the eventual creation and
retention of high-quality jobs, particularly for the unemployed and
underemployed in the Nation’s most economically distressed regions. As part of
this program, EDA supports Partnership Planning investments to facilitate the
development, implementation, revision, or replacement of Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategies (CEDS), which articulate and prioritize the strategic
economic goals of recipients’ respective regions. The Local Technical
Assistance program strengthens the capacity of local or State organizations,
institutions of higher education, and other eligible recipients to undertake
and promote effective economic development programs through projects such as
feasibility studies and impact analyses.
EDA is seeking applications for a one (1) year cooperative agreement to
conduct research and analysis that results in tools for better aligning and
integrating federal economic development programs. A core piece of this work
will involve the creation and delivery of comprehensive, useable economic
development program content that will facilitate access to and maximize the
efficiency of such programs. Ultimately, such tools will permit communities
seeking federal and other assistance to achieve their economic development
objectives. Applicants should describe how they would develop and deliver
comprehensive information, including an inventory of federal economic
development programs and related content that identifies and clearly delineates
the parameters for all economic development programs administered by all
federal agencies. At a minimum, parameters for each program must include
eligibility, typical uses, complementary uses, target applicant type, the types
of activities supported by the program, other funding requirements or
constraints and the outputs and outcomes expected by the programs. The ideal
inventory would use the lens of EDA's logic model to identify how four key
areas of economic development capacity are advanced through the identified
federal economic development programs. Additionally, research and analysis will
be conducted to explore the extent to which EDA's Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategies (CEDS) process could fulfill or better align with the
economic/community/workforce development planning requirements of other Federal
economic development programs. See section I.C of this FFO. Recommendations are
sought for improved alignment of planning requirements across such programs.
Under this FFO, EDA
solicits applications from applicants in rural and urban areas to provide
investments that support construction, non-construction, technical assistance,
and revolving loan fund projects under EDA’s Public Works and EAA programs.
Grants and cooperative agreements made under these programs are designed to
leverage existing regional assets and support the implementation of economic
development strategies that advance new ideas and creative approaches to
advance economic prosperity in distressed communities. EDA provides strategic
investments on a competitive- merit-basis to support economic development,
foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed
areas of the United States.
The advantage is that
this is Federal Funding Opportunity which meaning it is very reliable; the
disadvantage is the requirements are very comprehensive and have lots of
limitations, not everybody can apply it.
