June 19, 2008
HP-1041

US Treasury Awards $8.2 Million to Organizations Serving
Economically Distressed Native American Communities

Scottsdale, Arizona – Director Donna J. Gambrell of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund visited Scottsdale, Arizona today to announce awards totaling $8,224,587 to 29 organizations serving Native American or Alaskan Native communities located in 15 states. The awards were made through the CDFI Fund's Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program.

"The 29 Native organizations we recognize today are strong institutions that bring leadership and stability to their communities by providing financial education, building assets, and expanding financial opportunity," said CDFI Fund Director Gambrell. "We are very pleased to know that the awards made today will enable further community development efforts and increase the availability of financial services and products in Native American and Alaskan Native communities."

The event was hosted by the Salt River Financial Services Institution which is supported by the Talking Stick Golf Club, an enterprise of the Salt-River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. Treasury held the national award announcement there to highlight the seven Arizona-based award recipients: Arizona Tribal CDFI (Phoenix); Bik'eh Hozho Community Development Corporation (Tuba City); CDFI of the Tohono O'Odham Nation (Sells); Hopi Credit Association (Keams Canyon); Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Tucson); Salt River Financial Services Institution (Scottsdale); Yavapai Apache Nation Community Development & Lending Corporation (Camp Verde) – all of which are leaders serving the community development needs of their Native communities. The awardees were selected after a competitive review of 45 applications received by the CDFI Fund from organizations across the nation that requested over $17 million in funding under the 2008 round of the NACA Program.

Since 2002, the CDFI Fund has made 177 awards totaling $31.3 million through its various funding programs aimed at benefiting Native communities. In five short years, the number of Native CDFIs has grown from 14 to 47 – a 335 percent increase. In addition, the CDFI Fund has awarded over $7.5 million to organizations to provide capacity-building and financial services training programs that are focused on Native Communities.

The CDFI Fund invests in and builds the capacity of community-based, private, for-profit and non-profit financial institutions with a primary mission of community development in economically distressed communities. These institutions certified by the CDFI Fund are able to respond to gaps in local markets that traditional financial institutions are not adequately serving. CDFIs provide critically needed capital, credit and other financial products in addition to technical assistance to community residents and businesses, service providers, and developers working to meet community needs.

In 2004, the CDFI Fund introduced the NACA Program, which was specifically designed to encourage the creation and strengthening of CDFIs that primarily serve Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. Organizations funded serve a wide range of Native communities, and reflect a diversity of institutions in various stages of development – from organizations in the early planning stages of creating a CDFI, to tribal entities working to certify an existing lending program, to established CDFIs in need of further capacity building assistance. Two types of funding are available: financial assistance awards, available only to certified CDFIs, are made in the form of loans, grants, deposits, or equity investments to support their financing activities. Historically, FA awards have been primarily used by awardees as financing capital; a FA award requires the awardee to match the CDFI Fund's award dollar-for-dollar with funds from non-Federal sources; and technical assistance grants used to acquire products or services, including technology, staff training, consulting services to acquire needed skills or services, or to support general capacity-building activities..

The CDFI Fund's vision is an America in which all people have adequate access to affordable capital, credit and financial services.

For more information about these awards, or about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the Fund's website at: http://www.cdfifund.gov .