The CDFI Fund’s FY 2016 Year in Review is now available on the CDFI Fund’s website. Read Director Annie Donovan’s introductory message below, and view the full publication here.
I am pleased to present to you the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund’s (CDFI Fund) fiscal year (FY) 2016 Year in Review. As you will see in the following pages, the CDFI Fund made measurable progress toward expanding economic opportunity and growth in distressed communities. In the past year, our programs leveraged billions of dollars in investor capital, provided financing to thousands of businesses (most of them small businesses), enabled the creation of jobs across the country, and catalyzed the development of tens of thousands of affordable housing units. That’s impact!
The CDFI Fund awarded organizations more than $543 million in financial assistance, loans, and bond guarantees in FY 2016, including the first award round of the Capital Magnet Fund since FY 2010. And we recognized innovative practices that will increase access to capital and financial services in underserved rural areas, especially areas of persistent poverty, through our 2016 CDFI Prize Competition.
Shortly after the close of FY 2016, we announced the largest single award round for the New Markets Tax Credit Program in history—$7 billion in tax credits for community and economic development activities in low-income communities nationwide.
In addition to these programmatic achievements, we significantly advanced the implementation of the Awards Management Information System (AMIS). AMIS is a cloud-based, integrated technology platform that will increase our efficiency, improve the quality of the data we collect, and enhance the customer experience.
We also spent time thinking about how we can increase our reach in low-income communities; deepen the impact of the services that CDFIs are offering now; and encourage innovative financial products, services, and solutions for low-income Americans across the country. The end result is our Strategic Plan for FY 2017-2022, which you can preview in this publication and view in full on our website.
I am proud of the work already achieved by both the CDFI Fund and our awardees, but more importantly I am excited to get to work in the coming months to implement our strategic objectives. My sincere thanks to everyone—from CDFIs and members of the public, to members of our Community Development Advisory Board, to the CDFI Fund’s staff—for their thoughtful contributions to this process. Together, we are ready to create an even more inclusive economy.
Read the publication to view the CDFI Fund’s FY 2016 achievements, and learn even more about our work at www.cdfifund.gov.
Annie Donovan
Director, CDFI Fund