–Second Largest Grant Award Received in California–
Accessity, a nonprofit business lender, has been granted $5,887,242 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund Equitable Recovery Program (ERP). This is the second-largest grant to be awarded in California and marks a historic moment for the nonprofit and its mission to serve small business owners.
“We are proud to be among the top-awarded organizations in the country, and we couldn’t have achieved this without the dedicated contributions of our team,” said CEO Elizabeth Schott. “This funding will support Accessity to build capacity and expand small business lending in low- to moderate-income communities and borrowers with significant unmet capital and financial service needs that have experienced disproportionate economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Accessity will use most of the funds to provide direct access to capital to small businesses in Southern California within eligible ERP geographies, as well as minority individuals or minority-owned or controlled businesses. The remainder of the funds will be used to build the organization’s capacity in development services to support borrowers and operational support to carry out equitable recovery activities over five years.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo announced the awards on Monday, April 10, which totaled $1.73 billion in CDFI ERP funding to 603 financial institutions in the United States.
More details about when the fund will be deployed will be available in June when the CDFI Fund releases assistance agreements.
Awardees represent a diverse group of credit unions, depository institutions, loan funds, and venture capital funds. View the complete list of awardees on the CDFI Fund’s website at https://www.cdfifund.gov/news/517.
About Accessity
Accessity, formerly Accion San Diego, is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution organization that provides economic opportunity to entrepreneurs through access to small business loans from $300 to $100,000 and a community of support and resources in Southern California. Accessity’s mission is to open doors of financial opportunity to those with historically less access to capital and business support: entrepreneurs of color, women, immigrants, and low- to moderate-income entrepreneurs, so they can build prosperous businesses and livelihoods for themselves and their families, while also strengthening communities. Since 1994, the organization has provided more than $70 million in loans to small business owners, assisting them in starting, expanding, building self-sufficiency, and supporting local employment and the economy. For more information, visit accessity.org.
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