New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs: Removing Barriers

The Kauffman Foundation continues to recognize, with urgency, the significance of the role new and existing businesses play in local, regional, and the national economy. This report continues our series of sharing the state of capital access for entrepreneurs highlighting the need for innovative products and models to improve capital delivery systems.

Lending to Entrepreneurs of Color: Strategies & Tactics

In this paper, we share lessons in six key areas related to microloan origination, including specific practices of CDFIs that are currently originating many hundreds or thousands of microloans annually. The findings are drawn from the members of BOI’s Microfinance Impact Collaborative (MIC), which has been convening and collaborating since 2015 and whose members collectively originated 11,978 loans totaling just under $310 million in 2022. This paper follows a prior one that described the critical role that microloans — loans less than $50,000 — play in meeting the needs of Black and Latinx borrowers and the challenges that CDFIs face in scaling microlending.

Economic Wellness: Meeting Families Where They Are

In our new report, we examine the barriers low-income, BIPOC communities face in the US banking system. Based on data from nearly 900 participants in Southern California, the report looks at access to affordable banking options, trust and confidence in the banking system, existing community outreach programs, and it offers policy recommendations. CRC

Making CRA Relevant for a Changing Financial Services Industry

This paper examines shifts in the market share of banks and nonbank financial institutions in important product markets. Banks are covered by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which requires them to serve all communities, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) ones. Nonbanks, in contrast, do not have this obligation. NCRC

California Communities’ Broadband Needs and the Role of Financial Institutions

For this report, the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) analyzed findings from multiple surveys of our varied constituents. First, we conducted a survey of 13 large national banks about their investments in broadband access and adoption initiatives. Second, in partnership with The Greenlining Institute, we conducted an annual survey of our members, who are local organizations

Debunking Risk in Food System Lending

Food and agriculture-related businesses are often perceived as too risky for traditional lending approaches, yet CDFA research tells a different story. This report, with loan-level data from over a thousand funds nationwide, demonstrates that food system loans perform and that revolving loan funds can successfully support local food system borrowers in their communities. CDFA

Using Technical Assistance to Improve Minority and Rural Small Business Access to Capital

Minority owned small businesses face more challenges in obtaining capital than other small businesses. As stated in the PayPal-funded report, Reducing the Racial Financial Health Gap: The Opportunity for Responsible Fintech, “Black-owned small businesses have faced huge challenges in credit availability, which contributes to the racial disparities in income, financial health, and wealth. The COVID-19