For this year's Caren S. Franzini Fellowship, the Fellows are conducting research on improving access to capital for women and minority developers. Fill out this survey to help the Fellows better understand perspectives on increasing access to capital through pre-development tools for women, Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous developers.

After weeks of rising tensions among congressional Democrats, President Joe Biden is stepping in Wednesday to personally attempt to resolve divisions that are threatening to tear the Democratic caucus apart and tank the president's first-term domestic agenda. Biden is hosting key members of at least four warring factions of Democrats in Congress on Wednesday afternoon.

Community development lenders have emerged over the decades to specialize in lending to projects often in areas that were historically excluded from investment because of redlining, but even they have financed mostly white developers to build, own and profit from affordable housing or other projects in communities of color.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's CDFI Fund awarded 191 organizations more than $24.1 million in awards from the fiscal year 2021 CDFI Program and Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program. The Technical Assistance Awards will allow CDFIs and emerging CDFIs to build their capacity to provide services to low-income and underserved people and communities across America.

Over the past few weeks, Smart Incentives has examined the state of business incentives for entrepreneurial firms, implementation issues, and the outcomes that these incentives have on firms and regional economies. This post offers three policy guidance recommendations for designing, implementing, and evaluating incentives so that they help state and local policymakers achieve their economic and entrepreneurship development objectives.

Appalachian Community Capital today announced receipt of a $1.5M grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to help bring expanded investment into Central Appalachian communities in five states: Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. ACC is the lead partner in Opportunity Appalachia, an initiative designed to provide targeted support for downtown and rural development to build entrepreneurial communities where local businesses can thrive.

Charlotte is poised to borrow more than $100 million for public safety and housing development projects. North Carolina's Local Government Commission (LGC) unanimously approved Charlotte's plan Tuesday to borrow nearly $125 million for police and fire stations, a police helicopter, and to fund other capital improvement projects. The Charlotte Housing Authority also received unanimous approval to borrow more than $40 million in bonds for two multiple-family housing developments.

The Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) approved $8,272,040 million in grants and $1,975,000 in low-interest loans for planning, economic development, and rural broadband infrastructure construction projects. Five rural broadband projects were approved for nearly $8 million in funding from the CERB coronavirus capital projects fund.

U.S. Senators Deb Fischer and Amy Klobuchar introduced the Precision Agriculture Loan (PAL) Act. The bipartisan legislation would create a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide loan financing to farmers and ranchers interested in purchasing precision agriculture equipment.

Sen. Michael Bennet has proposed legislation that would make the meaningful investments needed in our forests, rangelands, and watersheds by encouraging partnerships between federal, state, and tribal agencies. The House just put it into the budget reconciliation bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, providing $40 billion to restore our forests, improve wildlife habitat, while creating millions of good-paying jobs in rural areas.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved its portion of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation legislation, which includes the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. Novogradac analyzed several primary low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) unit financing provisions in the reconciliation bill and found that an estimated 1,380,500 additional affordable rental homes could be financed over 10 years if the bill were enacted.

Invest Atlanta and Atlanta Emerging Markets (AEMI) are seeking a strategic Program Specialist to manage all aspects of AEMI's innovative community development financing programs. You'll help us support Atlanta's social-impact organizations and non-profits by leading our data collection and reporting efforts, serving as a relationship manager with borrowers, building new loan programs, assisting with marketing and communication, and managing the administration of the organization.

Invest Atlanta is seeking a new Assistant Director of Data Operations who will be reporting to the Vice President of Marketing and Communications. The individual in the role will be responsible for creating, deploying, measuring, and optimizing the organization's unified data strategy, working in collaboration with multiple departments and key leaders across the organization, and providing ongoing support to teams seeking to integrate data driven tools, processes, and knowledge into their work.

The Boynton Beach CRA is seeking qualified individuals or firms to perform an independent third-party evaluation of development proposals from the 115 N. Federal Highway Infill Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project Request for Proposals and Developer Qualifications (RFP/RFQ) received by the CRA.

The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is publishing an RFP to solicit potential use cases for its climate change guarantee product. Proposals are due October 29, 2021. Those organizations who plan to propose are requested to let CIGP know and/or submit any questions by September 24 at 12:00 PM.

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The RISE Miami-Dade Fund (RISE) grew from an idea proposed by a diverse coalition to an effective team delivering technical assistance, advice, and much-needed capital to Miami-Dade County's hard-to-reach small businesses. This report demonstrates the success of RISE, including the critical ingredients that powered it. In addition, the data collected through the application process offers a window into the long-term needs of Miami-Dade's small business community. Finally, the report offers a new structure for RISE going forward that can begin to address the gaps.

Completed in August of 2021, this report offers a snapshot of national trends, and a directory of food systems plans and charters that exist at state and regional levels across the United States (see the directory at the end of this document). It is intended to serve as a resource to facilitate network building and co-learning among practitioners leading these efforts and groups interested in launching their own plans and charters.

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