Last month, the CDFI Fund announced its 2024 Financial Assistance (FA) Awards, covering a two-year application cycle and granting $408.2 million to 357 CDFIs, encompassing both the CDFI Program FA and Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Awards. This year's Technical Assistance awards have not yet been announced. These awards are the cornerstone of the Fund's support for Community Development Financial Instiututions (CDFI)
CU Strategic Planning worked with a record 81 grant-winning credit unions this year, representing 60% of all 2024 FA Award-winning credit unions. Below are some more details about this year's awards.
Highlights include the following:
We wrote 81 winning applications for both the CDFI Program and NACA awards, resulting in $72.5 million in funding for these credit unions.
Those 81 credit unions accounted for 60% of winning credit unions. By financial institution type, awards went to:
176 loan funds
135 credit unions
43 banks, thrifts or holding companies
3 venture capital firms
Our CDFI Program FA winners averaged $148,084 more per award than other credit union FA winners.
The three most common strategies used in winning applications were affordable housing and home ownership, women's empowerment initiatives, and financial inclusion/empowerment. Our strategists work with each credit union to determine the focus that best suits both its own strengths and its community's needs.
This year, 40% of our winning credit unions were first-time FA Award winners.
This set of awards brings CU Strategic Planning's total funding secured for credit unions to over one billion dollars.
Our mission is to unlock opportunities for credit unions to change lives and their communities. We're thrilled to have achieved such a milestone this year while assisting a record number of credit unions do just that.
Learn more about our CDFI services for credit unions or contact us to start a discussion about what we can do for you.