Sunday, January 17, 2016

BPL Alternative Funding Resource


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.

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