The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding round for the CDFI Equitable Recovery Program (CDFI ERP) today. The program will provide approximately $1.73 billion in awards, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Pub. L. 116-260), to Certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDFI Fund is opening the program round for applications today in anticipation of publication of the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) in the Federal Register on June 24, 2022.

Through CDFI ERP, the CDFI Fund will provide Awards to Certified CDFIs to 1) expand lending, grant making and investment activities in Low- or Moderate-Income communities and to borrowers, including minorities, that have significant unmet capital or financial services needs and were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) enable CDFIs to build organizational capacity and acquire technology, staff, and other tools necessary to accomplish the activities under a CDFI ERP Award. All Awards provided through this NOFA are subject to funding availability. The CDFI ERP Award may be expended for eligible activities such as financial products, financial services, development services and/or grants, and certain operational support activities as defined by the NOFA.

All applications must be submitted to the CDFI Fund by August 23, 2022. Review the NOFA for additional program details.

Please see below for guidance on how to apply to the CDFI ERP.

Eligibility

Organizations eligible to apply for a CDFI ERP Award will be limited to CDFIs that:

• have been certified, by the CDFI Fund, as CDFIs as of the date the NOFA is published in the Federal Register—the NOFA serves as an official notice that organizations can formally submit an application for a CDFI ERP Award;
• have a track record of serving CDFI ERP-Eligible Geographies (which will be detailed in the NOFA) and can provide data demonstrating such track record as part of the application process; and
• meet certain financial management criteria, including two years of audited financial statements, and are in compliance with all outstanding CDFI Fund awards, allocations, or bond requirements and meet benchmarks for programmatic and financial safety and soundness.

Application Materials

Reference copies of the CDFI ERP NOFA and all application materials can be found on the CDFI ERP page on the CDFI Fund’s website.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to read and view all application materials, including the NOFA, application guidance, webinars, and presentations.

Application Webinars

The CDFI Fund is conducting two live webinars to provide guidance to applicants about the FY 2022 CDFI ERP application and to answer applicant questions. Please review the CDFI ERP webpage for the dates, times, and access information for each webinar. Advance registration is not required for the webinars.

Required Application Systems

All applicants must be registered and have active accounts in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS) to apply for funding, or they will be unable to submit an application. All applicants are also required to have the correct Employer Identification Number and Unique Entity Identifier number attached to the relevant SAM.gov and AMIS accounts by July 26, 2022. As soon as possible, organizations should either create these accounts if they don’t exist, or confirm that their existing accounts are up-to-date, in order to avoid potential application submission problems. Detailed information is available in the FY 2022 CDFI ERP NOFA.

Timeline

• Applicants must submit their SF-424 electronically via Grants.gov and create an AMIS account before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on July 26, 2022.
  • CDFI Equitable Recovery Program Grants.gov Funding Number: CDFI-2022-ERP
• The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted at least three days before each corresponding deadline for Grants.gov and AMIS.
• The CDFI Fund will no longer respond to any applicant questions regarding the CDFI ERP application round received after 5:00 p.m. ET on August 19, 2022. Compliance and CDFI Certification support will not be available after 5:00 p.m. ET on August 19, 2022.
• The CDFI Fund will be answering questions about AMIS technical issues with the FY 2022 CDFI ERP application until 5:00 p.m. ET on August 23, 2022. 
• The complete CDFI ERP funding application must be submitted electronically through AMIS before 11:59 p.m. ET on August 23, 2022. 

Please see the NOFA for more information on submitting the CDFI ERP application.

Questions

Contact the CDFI Fund with questions by submitting a Service Request through your AMIS account, by e-mail to erp@cdfi.treas.gov, or by phone to (202) 653-0421 (please note this is not a toll free number).

To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.