CDFI Fund Releases Application Demand for the FY 2012 CDFI Program Funding Round

Washington, DC  The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced today that it received 403 applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) funding round. This total includes 285 applications for Financial Assistance (FA) and 118 for Technical Assistance (TA). The number of applications is slightly up from FY 2011 when 393 applications were received.

The FY 2012 applicants requested almost $395.7 million, with FA applicants requesting $384.3 million and TA applicants requesting $11.4 million. Applicants for FA are from forty-six states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; TA applicants are from thirty-eight states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

"The response to this year's round demonstrates that there is still work to be done in many communities across our nation and that there is continued need for the flexible capital that the CDFI Program provides," said CDFI Fund Director Donna J. Gambrell. "These CDFIs are on the frontlines of these economically distressed communities, and are providing critically needed financial products and services to those who often have no alternatives."

The CDFI Fund published a Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) in the Federal Register on November 7, 2011 announcing that it was making available $123 million for Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance. Approximately $15 million is being targeted to CDFIs that applied under Category I or the Small and Emerging CDFI Assistance component; $105 million will be available to Category II applicants known as the Core component. The NOFA also included $3 million for CDFIs that applied for TA only. An additional $25 million in FA was set aside for the CDFI Fund's Healthy Foods Financing Initiative (HFFI-FA).

The deadline for applications was January 11, 2012. The awards are expected to be announced in the summer of 2012.

Applications are currently being evaluated through a merit-based qualitative review to identify those applicants most likely to have the greatest impact in our nation's most distressed low-income rural and urban communities. The following table contains further information of the applicant pool:

For more information on the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.