The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) today opened the fiscal year (FY) 2018 funding round for the Capital Magnet Fund.
Through the Capital Magnet Fund, the CDFI Fund competitively awards funds to CDFIs and qualified non-profit housing organizations. These awards can be used to finance affordable housing activities, as well as related economic development activities and community service facilities. The objective is to attract private capital to economically distressed communities, including underserved rural areas. Funding for the Capital Magnet Fund comes from allocations made by the Government-Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and varies from year to year. The CDFI Fund plans to provide approximately $142.9 million in awards for the FY 2018 round.
Capital Magnet Fund awardees are able to utilize these funds for financing activities such as affordable housing funds, economic development funds, loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, risk-sharing loans, and loan guarantees. Recipients are required to leverage private and public funds to finance affordable housing and economic development activities that yield a minimum ratio of 10:1.
In order to provide potential applicants with as much time as possible, the CDFI Fund is posting the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) and application materials for the Capital Magnet Fund on the CDFI Fund’s website today in advance of the publication of the NOFA in the Federal Register later this week.
Application Materials
The FY 2018 Capital Magnet Fund NOFA, application, application instructions, and related guidance can be found on the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/cmf under How to Apply Step 2: Apply. The application process consists of two parts: submitting the SF-424 form through Grants.gov, and submitting the rest of the application through the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS).
Mandatory Accounts for Applicants
All applicants must be registered in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and AMIS to apply for funding. Organizations should confirm that their accounts are up-to-date as soon as possible in order to avoid potential application submission problems. New applicants are encouraged to begin the registration process now. Recent procedural changes to SAM.gov mean that the registration process may take much longer than in previous years for both new applicants and repeat applicants that need to renew their SAM.gov accounts.
Registration guidance for Grants.gov and SAM.gov can be found on the websites for those systems. Guidance on using AMIS (including registration) can be found at https://amis.cdfifund.gov/. The CDFI Fund has also outlined basic steps about the registration process on its website.
Application Submission
The SF-424 is now available for submission through Grants.gov. The FY 2018 Capital Magnet Fund online application form is also currently available in AMIS.
The CDFI Fund strongly recommends that the instructions and application timelines are reviewed closely by both first-time and repeat applicants, and that all applicants give themselves adequate time to submit the required application materials through Grants.gov and AMIS.
Deadlines
- The deadline for submission of the SF-424 is 11:59 pm Eastern Time (ET) on August 20, 2018. All applicants must submit their SF-424 electronically through Grants.gov. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted through Grants.gov at least three days before the deadline.
- The deadline for creating an organizational account in AMIS is 11:59 pm Eastern Time (ET) on August 27, 2018.
- The deadline for submission of the Capital Magnet Fund application materials through the CDFI Fund’s Award Management Information System (AMIS) is 5:00 p.m. ET on September 17, 2018. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted through AMIS at least three days before the deadline.
- The CDFI Fund will stop taking questions about the application at 5:00 p.m. ET on September 13, 2018.
Please see the NOFA for applicant eligibility requirements and the steps for submitting all parts of the Capital Magnet Fund application.
Learn About Applying to the Capital Magnet Fund
The CDFI Fund will be conducting three targeted live webinars to provide a forum to answer applicant questions about the FY 2018 Capital Magnet Fund application. The first two webinars will provide an overview of the application for certified CDFIs and for non-profit affordable housing organizations; the third will provide a walkthrough of the AMIS application. Please view the Step 2: Apply page of the Capital Magnet Fund website for the dates, times, and access information for each webinar.
Questions
For more information on the Capital Magnet Fund, please submit a Service Request through AMIS, or contact the CDFI Fund’s Help Desk by e-mailing cmf@cdfi.treas.gov or by calling (202) 653-0421. The CDFI Fund will stop responding to questions about the FY 2018 award round at 5:00 p.m. ET on September 13, 2018.
To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.