Capital Impact Partners Awarded $1.8 Million through the Treasury Department to Help Communities and Small Businesses Recover From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Arlington, VA (June 15, 2021) – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that Capital Impact Partners was awarded $1,826,265 as part of $1.25 billion in awards to 863 Community Development Financial institutions (CDFIs) to respond to economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in disinvested, yet persevering communities across the country. 

The awards were announced today by Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen. The grants will be made through Treasury’s CDFI Rapid Response Program (CDFI RRP).

“In serving places that the financial sector historically hasn’t served well, CDFIs lift our whole economy up. We know that for every dollar injected into a CDFI, it catalyzes eight more dollars in private-sector investment, meaning that today’s announcement might lead to an additional $10 billion in investment,” said Secretary Janet Yellen. 

“Communities of color have experienced disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 and racial injustices over the course of the last year, on top of historical disinvestment,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance. “We will utilize the RRP award to expand our work and uplift community members, partners, and borrowers to ensure that communities across the country advance on their journey to equity and wealth building.”

The CDFI RRP grant funds will be used to support eligible activities such as financial products, financial services, development services, and certain operational activities, and to enable CDFIs to build capital reserves and loan-loss reserves. The CDFI Fund designed the program to disburse the funds rapidly in light of the nationwide economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDFI RRP was authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.

“These awards provide CDFIs with an unprecedented level of flexible capital to help distressed and underserved communities across the country take meaningful steps towards recovering from the debilitating economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. “CDFI RRP awards will enable CDFIs to help businesses keep their doors open, help families make ends meet, and help maintain important community facilities during this difficult time.”

Since 1982, Capital Impact Partners has centered social and economic justice needs of the communities we serve, investing more than $2.5 billion nationwide to serve more than 6 million people and to create nearly 40,000 jobs while expanding access to affordable housing, health care, healthy food, education and small business funding. Through our work, we have and continue to invest in disinvested communities to build economic mobility, resilience, equity, and opportunity.

In April, 2021, Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance aligned operations in a new joint enterprise designed to transform how capital and investments flow into historically disinvested communities.  The organizations are focusing efforts to drive economic empowerment and address systemic issues facing communities.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to work as a counterforce to help communities address the now-amplified needs of individuals, families, and businesses. We implemented several initiatives and funds to support the needs of our communities, including:

• CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund: a $25 million fund launched to provide flexible financing for California community health centers and clinics;
• DMV Good Food Fund Innovative Response Fund: launched to provide $100,000 in awards to key partners in order to allow local good food enterprises to reposition and pivot in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the regional food economy;
• 2020 Co-op Innovation Award: provided $100,000 in grants to cooperative organizations expanding knowledge of and opportunities for wealth building and sovereignty through the co-op model, particularly in the face of COVID-19;
• Stay Midtown: made additional rental and relocation assistance available to renters in partnership with Midtown Detroit, Inc through the Stay Midtown program; and
• Entrepreneurs of Color Fund: helped to channel relief funds to support small business borrowers in Washington, D.C. through our partners at the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) and the Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif).

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