Press release from Dogwood Health Trust:
Dogwood Health Trust has tapped CDFI Friendly America to help lead Dogwood’s WNC Access to Capital Learning Cohort of non-traditional small business lenders, such as Community Development Financing Institutions (CDFI). Working with CDFI Friendly America, the cohort will work to increase the regional supply of financing and small business support services, especially among people and communities of color and within rural communities.
According to Dogwood’s WNC Capital Landscape Assessment report commissioned in 2022, roughly only one in every 30 existing small businesses in Western North Carolina, or just over 3%, gets access to startup, operating and/or growth capital from formal sources. “We know that local small businesses are the bedrock of Western North Carolina’s economy, creating financial security for owners, their families, and their employees,” said Dr. Susan Mims, CEO of Dogwood Health Trust. “When mission-aligned lenders are better able to support the creation and expansion of small businesses that lack access to traditional resources, a more diverse and thriving local economy develops. Dogwood is eager to partner with CDFI Friendly America to facilitate this work with our local CDFIs, and ultimately fuel success for communities who have lacked critical capital access.”
CDFI Friendly America has a national reputation for increasing CDFI financing to historically under-financed people, organizations, and businesses in places where they live and work. CDFI Friendly America will organize and lead the WNC Access to Capital cohort’s work through eight quarterly convenings over two years focusing on three phases: assessing local market conditions and barriers, educating and organizing the local market, and planning and implementing a cohort strategy. In addition, the Cohort participants will learn from national experts and benefit from technical assistance.
“CDFIs and their peer mission-driven financial institutions lend just outside the margin of their conventional partners to serve under-financed and underestimated people and places,” explained Mark Pinsky, president of CFA. “The Cohort participants will learn together and from each other. CFA will bring in the experiences of CDFIs from across the nation doing similar work over the past 40 years. As a result, the lenders in Western North Carolina will develop and implement a collaborative strategy built around shared goals.”
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