Rufino's Painting and Construction (Rufino's Painting) is a full service construction firm that specializes in painting and drywall. Rufino?s Painting, a certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), has completed hundreds of projects in the metropolitan New Orleans area, including several high profile commercial projects and dozens of school projects. DBEs are for-profit small businesses wHere'socially- and economicallydisadvantaged individuals own at least a 51% interest and also control management and daily business operations. The DBE program is administered by the U.S.

Phillips County, Arkansas is situated in what was once one of the most prosperous parts of the nation - the Arkansas Delta. Agriculture drove the area's success, but mechanized farming techniques eventually made many jobs obsolete. Over time, communities withered as workers left for urban areas in search of work. Today the Delta is still dominated by agriculture but with much fewer workers needed to grow crops, jobs are a scarce commodity.

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You may have noticed something new when the CDFI Fund opened the FY 2018 application round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) on January 31, 2018.

As part of this year?s application process, the CDFI Fund is inviting applicants to compete for approximately $2.5 million in supplemental Disability Funds-Financial Assistance funding (DF-FA). This award is available to CDFIs that wish to expand their financing activities and services for persons with disabilities.

With the New Year, the CDFI Fund has begun preparing for the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2018 funding rounds of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). To help you prepare, we wanted to pass along some key steps that will ensure a smooth application process.

In late October, CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan and I traveled to Alaska to participate in the Annual Conference of the Alaska Federation of Natives and to meet with several organizations that have utilized CDFI Fund programs. To say that Alaska, appropriately nicknamed “The Last Frontier,” is a unique place, would be an understatement. It is common to hear that Alaska is larger in area than California, Texas, and Montana combined, but it is impossible to appreciate that fact without experiencing it first-hand.

With New York City's high cost of living, making ends meet on a modest salary can be challenging. Even when financially stable New Yorkers are faced with an emergency, the ability to access sources of credit can be very expensive.

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In Corpus Christi, Texas, many entrepreneurs in underserved and underbanked communities, including minority-, veteran-, and women-run businesses, are unable to receive loans through traditional means. The LiftFund, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), with an award from the CDFI Program, has reached out to these underserved communities and provided financial opportunities to entrepreneurs who would not otherwise have been able to open businesses in their communities.

Recently, CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan