The application period for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 funding round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund’s (CDFI Fund) Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) closed on February 15, 2024. In total, 948 organizations from across the country requested a combined level of approximately $1.55 billion in awards, which is more than three times the amount of available funding and clearly demonstrates the need to deploy capital into economically underserved communities nationwide.
“This has been another record-breaking round of the CDFI Program with an overall increase of 42% in Financial Assistance (FA) applications and an 18% increase in Technical Assistance applications. In addition, FA applications increased 28% in the NACA Program,” said CDFI Fund Director Pravina Raghavan. “This historic level of demand through this combined round underscores the continuing critical need for capital and credit in economically distressed and underserved communities across the nation.”
This is the largest number of organizations ever to apply to a single round of the CDFI Program and NACA Program. Specifically,[i]:
- 610 organizations requested $1.05 billion in CDFI Program Base-Financial Assistance (Base-FA) awards.
- 285 organizations requested $83.2 million in CDFI Program Technical Assistance (TA) awards.
- 272 organizations requested $158 million in CDFI Program Persistent Poverty County-Financial Assistance (PPC-FA) awards.
- 37 organizations requested $59.6 million in NACA Program Base-FA awards.
- 15 organizations requested $5.5 million in NACA Program TA awards.
- 12 organizations requested $6.4 million in NACA Program PPC-FA awards.
- 15 organizations requested $26.5 million in Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) awards (CDFI Program and NACA Program combined).
- 28 organizations requested $162 million in Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA) awards (CDFI Program and NACA Program combined).
As outlined in the Notices of Funds Availability, estimated funds for the FY 2024 funding round are a combination of appropriations from FY 2023 and FY 2024. FY 2023 funds were appropriated as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub. L. 117– 328), while FY 2024 funds are pending and subject to change based on passage of a final FY 2024 appropriations bill. Pending final appropriations, the CDFI Fund estimates the following amounts will be awarded in the different funding categories:
- $302.8 million in CDFI Program Base-FA and TA awards.
- $41.2 million in CDFI Program PPC-FA awards.
- $43.7 million in NACA Program Base-FA and TA awards.
- $6.3 million in NACA Program PPC-FA awards.
- Up to $20 million for DF-FA awards (CDFI Program and NACA Program combined).
- $48 million for HFFI-FA awards (CDFI Program and NACA Program combined).
Per the FY 2024 CDFI Program and NACA Program Notices of Funds Availability, the CDFI Fund reserves the right to award more or less than the amounts cited above in each category, based upon available funding and other factors, as appropriate.
Nationwide, the FY 2024 CDFI Program and NACA Program Applicants are headquartered in 48 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the CDFI Program also received applications from organizations headquartered in the U.S. Territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The CDFI Fund currently anticipates that the FY 2024 Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance awards will be announced separately.
For more information about these programs, please visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/cdfi or www.cdfifund.gov/native.