Community Development Financial Institutions Awarded Funds to Serve Farmers

Three organizations receive initial round of grant awards

St. Paul, MN: Three community development organizations in Minnesota will receive grant funding to strengthen agriculture-focused financial services through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA)’s new Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Technical Assistance Grant.

The MDA awarded $270,000 in total to three CDFIs for the following purposes:

• African Economic Development Solutions: $80,000 to train staff on resources for farm businesses, establish partnerships with agriculture-related organizations, and create new loan products, programs and policies to serve farmers.
• Hmong American Partnership: $90,000 to increase staff expertise in agricultural financial services, enhance farmers’ knowledge through loan readiness workshops and technical assistance, and develop tailored loan products to fit the financial needs of farmers.
• Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC): $100,000 to strengthen their agricultural lending program through a new ag loan policy manual, a dedicated ag loan fund, technology and processes that deploy capital to farmers faster, and professional development for LEDC staff to better serve farmers.

Awardees for this grant are certified CDFIs who serve or intend to serve farmers in Minnesota and have participated in at least one U. S. Department of Agriculture grant or loan program. A certified CDFI is defined as a bank, credit union, microloan fund, or venture capital provider who has completed a certification process with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund.

The grants were offered to CDFIs in two main areas of technical assistance:

• Technical assistance provided by CFDIs to farmers (e.g. assisting farmers with loan readiness or expanding outreach efforts toward targeted groups with agriculture-focused financial services).
• Technical assistance for CDFIs to increase their own capacity to serve farmers (e.g. to develop their agriculture lending program or internal knowledge and processes as a foundation to provide financial services to emerging farmers).

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