The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) invites Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), community development practitioners, and the general public to take this opportunity to comment on a proposed CDFI Prize Competition. The Request for Information for the competition, as required by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (15 U.S.C. 3719), is expected to be published in the Federal Register this week.
Like last year’s CDFI Fund Innovation Challenge, the FY 2016 CDFI Prize Competition is designed to encourage innovative approaches to building the capacity of CDFIs. Specifically, the prize competition will reward selected applicants with monetary prizes for proposing innovative ideas and approaches to increasing CDFI investment and access to capital in underserved rural areas. The CDFI Fund expects that it will award no less than $1 million of FY 2016 appropriated funds through the prize competition authority granted by the America COMPETES Act.
Please note that the purpose of the proposed prize competition is to stimulate and reward innovative ideas: since the proposed prize competition is not a grant or contract program, the prize funds are to reward ideas and proposals that may build the capacity of CDFIs to expand their impact in underserved areas.
An overview and details of the proposed competition and the public feedback requested is available in the Federal Register Notice below. In general, the CDFI Fund is seeking feedback from the public regarding:
- The topic and potential effectiveness of the prize competition;
- The proposed eligibility, application requirements, and timeline for the competition;
- The proposed prize amounts for the competition;
- The proposed evaluation criteria for the competition; and
- Any other suggestions or comments for how to improve the topic, eligibility and submission requirements, and evaluation criteria for the proposed FY 2016 CDFI Prize Competition.
Prize Competition Information Conference Call
The CDFI Fund has scheduled a conference call for May 19, 2016, at 12:00 p.m. EDT, to provide an additional opportunity for public input on the proposed FY 2016 CDFI Prize Competition. Advance registration is not required to participate. Requests for reasonable accommodations under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act should be directed to Michael Jones at 202-653-0300.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. EDT
Dial-in: 1-888-391-6803, Passcode: 3779041
Written Comments
Written comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. on May 25, 2016, to be assured of consideration. Comments should be submitted via e-mail to William Girardo, Portfolio Manager, CDFI Fund at CDFIchallenge@cdfi.treas.gov.
For more information about the CDFI Fund, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.
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