Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2019 funding round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The awards from these programs will support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that provide affordable financing and related services to low-income communities and populations that lack access to credit, capital, and financial services.
The CDFI Fund plans to award approximately $199.5 million in FY 2019 awards, authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (P.L. 116-6), to be divided as follows:
- $140.9 million in CDFI Program Financial Assistance (FA) and Technical Assistance (TA) awards.
- $13.95 million in NACA Program FA and TA awards.
- $19.7 million in Persistent Poverty County-Financial Assistance (PPC-FA) awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program applicants can apply for.
- $22 million for Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA) awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program applicants can apply for.
- $3 million for Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program applicants can apply for.
A detailed overview of the CDFI Program, the NACA Program, and the types of awards available can be found in the FY 2019 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for those programs. To learn more, please view the CDFI Program NOFA and NACA Program NOFA.
Application Materials
Reference copies of the NOFAs and all application materials can be found on the CDFI Fund’s website at:
- CDFI Program: www.cdfifund.gov/cdfi, under Step 2: Apply
- NACA Program: www.cdfifund.gov/native, under Step 2: Apply
Applicants are strongly encouraged to read and view all application materials, including the NOFA, application guidance, webinars, and presentations.
In the coming weeks, the CDFI Fund will continue to update the Application Materials section of the CDFI Program and NACA Program webpages with additional guidance materials and presentations. Keep an eye on the CDFI Fund’s website for updates.
Required Application Systems
All applicants must be registered and have active accounts in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS) to apply for funding by May 3, 2019, or their application will be considered ineligible. Organizations should either create these accounts if they don’t exist or confirm that their existing accounts are up-to-date as soon as possible in order to avoid potential application submission problems. Detailed information is available in the FY 2019 NOFA for each program.
New applicants are encouraged to begin the registration process for each of the systems now, and registration guidance is provided on each website. The CDFI Fund provided an initial overview of the steps to register in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and AMIS on its Impact Blog in December 2018. However, the CDFI Fund does not manage SAM.gov or Grants.gov, and processes for these systems may have changed since then. Please review each system’s requirements carefully.
Both new and repeat applicants should allow for ample time to complete the entire registration and submission process well in advance of the application deadline. Please see the applicable NOFAs for more information on submitting the CDFI Program and NACA Program applications.
Timeline
- Applicants must both submit their SF-424 electronically via Grants.gov and create an AMIS account before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on May 3, 2019.
- CDFI Program Grant.gov Funding Number: CDFI-2019-FATA
- NACA Program Grants.gov Funding Number: CDFI-2019-NACA
- CDFI Program and NACA Program applications must be submitted electronically through AMIS before 11:59 p.m. ET on June 6, 2019. The FY 2019 application is available in AMIS as of April 4, 2019.
- The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted at least three days before each corresponding deadline for Grants.gov and AMIS.
- The CDFI Fund will not respond to any applicant questions about the FY 2019 application round after 5:00 p.m. ET on June 4, 2019. Technical support for AMIS will not be available after 5:00 p.m. ET on June 6, 2019.
- The CDFI Fund anticipates announcing the FY 2019 awards before December 31, 2019. At this time, it is expected that the TA awards and FA awards will be announced separately. This will allow the CDFI Fund to announce the awards as quickly as possible despite delays due to the government shutdown in late December 2018—January 2019.
Please see the applicable NOFAs for more information on submitting the CDFI Program and NACA Program applications.
Learn About Applying to the CDFI and NACA Programs
The CDFI Fund is conducting five live webinars to inform applicants about the FY 2019 CDFI Program and NACA Program applications. Two of the webinars will cover an in-depth overview of the applications. The other three webinars will provide a forum to answer applicant questions. Please view the Application Materials section of the CDFI Program and NACA Program webpages for the dates, times, and access information for each webinar. Advance registration is not required to participate in the webinars.
Questions
For more information on the CDFI Program or the NACA Program, please contact the CDFI Fund’s Help Desk by submitting an AMIS Service Request, e-mailing cdfihelp@cdfi.treas.gov, or by calling (202) 653-0421 (option 1).