Matching Underbanked Entrepreneurs Seeking Funding And Advice With The Right CDFIs

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) can provide a lifeline to BIPOC founders and low-income communities having trouble getting loans from traditional banks. These private financial institutions focus on financing underbanked entrepreneurs, among other people, with a goal of boosting wealth creation in underserved communities, as well as neighborhood redevelopment.

With an understanding of the vital role CDFIs play and an eye towards helping to strengthen their reach, Small Business Majority (SBM), a small business advocacy group, just launched a way for small businesses looking for funding to be matched with CDFIs and a variety of service providers offering marketing, legal and other support. “We’re trying to boost the profile of CDFIs and others that exist to help businesses launch and grow” says Brian Pifer, vice president, research and insights at SBM. “We like to think of it as marketing for the good guys.”

A number of for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises are also focused on CDFIs. For example, Scale Link, formerly Entrepreneur-Backed Asset Fund, is creating a secondary market for CDFI loans, thereby strengthening CDFIs and helping them to expand small business loans in low-income communities. CNote has a platform through which individuals, institutions and foundations can invest in CDFIs.

Connecting to Responsible Lenders

The effort draws on SBM’s Venturize platform, a financial education hub with information about such areas as loan basics, how to shop for retirement plans, health insurance options and business planning, financial management, marketing, legal and other resources. (Many CDFIs also provide business support).

Through Venturize, small business owners can access Connect2Capital, an online tool from Community Reinvestment Fund, USA, (CRF), a national CDFI. They then fill out a form with such information as how much capital or business support they need and their zip code, submit it and get matched to the most likely 75 or so CDFIs and other groups on the site. “It’s trying to solve the problem of how to connect businesses to responsible lenders,” says Pifer. Businesses can contact the CDFIs directly, if they so choose.

To fill out the form, according to Pifer, businesses need the last year’s and projected revenue, proof of ability to pay and information about any existing debt. Startups supply a business plan, including how they expect to make money. Documents like tax returns aren’t needed.

SBM did a soft launch in March and, says Pifer “several hundred applications came through, with at least one funded loan.” In 2016, Venturize was originally developed by Opportunity Finance Network, a national network of CDFIs, which transferred the platform three years later.