U.S. Treasury Awards $1,088,000 to Chi-Ishobak to support Tribal Communities.

Chi Ishobak provides financing to tribal citizens who need business loans.

Published November 26, 2019

DOWAGIAC, Mich. — Sean Winters, Executive Director of Chi-Ishobak, announced that the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program awarded $1,088,000 to the Michigan-based non-profit organization to offer products and services to build capacity for Tribal Citizens in the areas of professional and personal finance.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for Chi-Ishobak,” said Winters. “This is the largest grant we have received from the NACA program, and will help us provide tremendous opportunity to our tribal citizens – both personally, and for those wanting to start or are in business.”

“We are very pleased to announce the FY 2019 CDFI Program and NACA Program award recipients. This is the largest pool of awardees in the history of the CDFI Fund,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. “I am especially pleased that almost half of the awarded organizations have chosen to provide services in areas of persistent poverty, which will lead to significant impact for residents in some of the most distressed communities nationwide.” For this round, the CDFI Fund awarded $132 million in Base-FA awards to 261 organizations in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) was established to expand economic opportunity for underserved people and communities by supporting the growth and capacity of a national network of community development lenders, investors, and financial service providers.  The CDFI Fund’s Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) was created specifically to help Native Communities thrive and grow by increasing their access to credit, capital, and financial services.

Awards from the NACA Program facilitate the creation and advancement of Native CDFIs and can be used for lending capital, loan loss reserves, capital reserves, financial services, and development services.