The fiscal year (FY) 2018 application round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) closed on April 4, 2018. The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) received 538 applications from 485 organizations across the country requesting a total of $504.5 million.
Specifically1:
- 432 organizations requested $334.9 million in CDFI Program Financial Assistance (FA) and Technical Assistance (TA) awards
- 53 organizations requested $33.7 million in NACA Program FA and TA awards
- 20 organizations requested $75.3 million in Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA) awards
- 33 organizations requested $15.2 million in Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) awards
- 162 organizations requested $45.4 million to serve Persistent Poverty Counties
Pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (PL 115-141), Congress appropriated $198 million for the CDFI Fund to support the following programs:
- $160 million in CDFI Program FA and TA awards
- $16 million in NACA Program FA and TA awards
- $22 million in HFFI-FA awards
A minimum of 10 percent of the appropriations must support investments in rural and urban Persistent Poverty Counties.
In addition, the CDFI Fund will combine FY 2017 and FY 2018 appropriated funds of up to $6 million to provide Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) funding for the FY 2018 award round. 33 applicants that applied for FA awards submitted supplemental applications requesting $15.2 million in DF-FA funding for projects and services that will assist individuals with disabilities. Combining the appropriated funds will allow the CDFI Fund to fund the maximum number of highly qualified applicants.
This year’s applicant pool is one of the most geographically diverse groups of applicants to apply for the CDFI Program or the NACA Program. Nationwide, the applicants are headquartered in 47 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the CDFI Program received eight applications from organizations headquartered in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico.
The CDFI Fund anticipates finalizing the FY 2018 CDFI Program and NACA Program awards in early Fall 2018. For more information about these programs, please visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/cdfi or www.cdfifund.gov/native.
1 Since organizations may apply for more than one type of award, the number of applications by program exceeds the total number of applicants.