Supporting CDFIs Led by and Serving Black Communities

In 2020 Prosperity Now made a strategic decision to reenergize our focus on entrepreneurship as a proven way to help bolster the economy of BIPOC communities. The key to building a more equitable future is to ensure that historically excluded and vulnerable communities have agency to participate fully and freely in our economic system. One way to do this is to improve the ecosystem of support to Black entrepreneurs, including access to capital. Prosperity Now is committed to strengthening CDFIs led by and serving Black communities, which are typically undercapitalized and lack the resources to provide technical assistance to Black businesses. In 2020, Prosperity Now partnered with the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs (AAA) to build the capacity of CDFIs as a viable support to Black communities that can address racial economic inequality.

AAA is focused on increasing access to capital to Black businesses and has built $1.5 billion in total loan fund assets toward business and housing.

We believe that CDFIs are critical to rebuilding communities, and well-supported CDFIs in Black communities will ensure that businesses can rebound, grow and invest in their communities for generations.

Page 30 Coalition

To tackle problems such as poverty, inequality and structural racism, we collaborate with like-minded local, state and national service providers, businesses, nonprofits, think tanks, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and government agencies to amplify and strengthen our shared work. In 2020, we established infrastructure to scale support for CDFIs led by and/or serving Black communities to strengthen Black entrepreneurship. Prosperity Now launched an analysis of CDFIs serving Black communities to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and needs facing Black entrepreneurs. Through this work, we enacted systems to advocate on behalf of CDFIs and Black entrepreneurs, building on the successes of the Page 30 Coalition (of which Prosperity Now was a founding member) and the Start Us Up Coalition to advocate on behalf of critical constituencies in need of COVID-19 relief, CDFIs and Black entrepreneurs.