The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) today opened the fiscal year (FY) 2021 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, as well as related economic development and community service facilities. The objective is to attract private capital investment in metropolitan, rural and economically distressed communities.
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 up to $380 million in awards for the FY 2021 round, which is the highest level of funding ever made available.
Given the larger amount of funding available for the FY 2021 funding round, eligible organizations of all sizes are encouraged to apply, including new and previous Applicants, past Capital Magnet Fund recipients, and Applicants focused on homeownership, rental housing, or both.
The CDFI Fund anticipates making more awards in this round of various sizes, including larger and smaller award amounts. Award requests that significantly exceed the maximum amounts made available in past funding rounds will be considered; the most recent Capital Magnet Fund awards ranged in size from $750,000 to $8 million, and averaged $3.7 million. Please note, the CDFI Fund cannot award more than 15% of the aggregate funding available in Capital Magnet Fund awards to any single Applicant, its Subsidiaries or Affiliates.
Capital Magnet Fund awardees are able to utilize these funds for financing activities, such as capitalizing affordable housing funds, economic development funds, loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, undertaking risk-sharing loans, and providing 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.
Application Materials
The FY 2021 Capital Magnet Fund Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA), application, application instructions, and related guidance can be found on the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/programs-training/programs/cmf under How to Apply Step 2: Apply. The application process consists of two parts: submitting the SF-424 Mandatory form through Grants.gov, and submitting the rest of the application through the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS).
Required Application Systems
All applicants must be registered and have active accounts in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and AMIS to apply for funding by the applicable deadlines 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 and active as soon as possible in order to avoid potential application submission problems.
Both new and repeat applicants should allow ample time to complete the entire registration and submission process well in advance of the application deadlines. Registration guidance is provided on each website. Please review each system’s requirements carefully. Detailed information is available in the FY 2021 NOFA.
Deadlines
- The deadline for submission of the SF-424 is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on October 12, 2021. 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 p.m. ET on October 12, 2021.
- The CDFI Fund will stop taking questions about the application at 5:00 p.m. ET on November 4, 2021.
- The deadline for submission of the Capital Magnet Fund application materials through AMIS is 5:00 p.m. ET on November 9, 2021. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted through AMIS at least three days before the deadline.
Please see the FY 2021 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 is conducting three webinars to inform applicants about the FY 2021 Capital Magnet Fund application. The first two webinars will be live and will provide an overview of the application for financing entities and affordable housing organizations; the third will provide a walkthrough of the AMIS application, and a recording of the webinar will be posted to our website. Please view the Step 2: Apply page of the Capital Magnet Fund website for the dates, times, and how to access information for each webinar. Advance registration is not required to participate in the webinars.
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 2021 award round at 5:00 p.m. ET on November 4, 2021.
To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.