Today the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2024 funding round for the Capital Magnet Fund. 

Through the Capital Magnet Fund, the CDFI Fund competitively awards funds to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and qualified non-profit housing organizations. These awards can be used to finance affordable housing, as well as related economic development and community service facilities. The objective is to attract private capital investment in metropolitan, rural, and economically distressed communities. 

Funding for the Capital Magnet Fund comes from allocations made by the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and varies from year to year. The CDFI Fund plans to make approximately $246.5 million in awards through the FY 2024 round. 

Capital Magnet Fund recipients are able to utilize these funds for financing activities, such as capitalizing affordable housing funds, economic development funds, loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, undertaking risk-sharing loans, and providing loan guarantees. Recipients are required to leverage private and public funds to finance affordable housing and economic development activities that yield a minimum ratio of 10:1. 

New CDFI Fund Title VI Worksheet Requirement 

All Applicants must be compliant with federal civil rights requirements in order to be eligible to receive federal financial assistance awards from the CDFI Fund. New for this round of the Capital Magnet Fund program, the CDFI Fund is requiring all Applicants complete a Title VI Compliance Worksheet once each calendar year. This requirement applies to Applicants, as well as their prospective subrecipients that are not direct beneficiaries of federal financial assistance (e.g., Depository Institutions Holding Company and their Subsidiary Depository Institutions). Completion of the Title VI Compliance Worksheet is required for the Bank Enterprise Award Program, Capital Magnet Fund, CDFI Program, NACA Program, and the Small Dollar Loan Program. The Title VI Compliance Worksheet is not required for the New Markets Tax Credit Program or the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program. 

Information on the CDFI Fund Title VI Compliance Worksheet can be accessed here. Under the “Resources” heading are the worksheet questions, a technical User Guide for how to submit in the CDFI Fund’s Awards Information Management System (AMIS), and a recorded video tutorial on submitting in AMIS. The deadline to submit the Title VI Compliance Worksheet in AMIS is March 14, 2024. 

Application Materials

The FY 2024 Capital Magnet Fund NOFA, application instructions, and related guidance can be found on the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/cmf under Step 2: Apply. The application process consists of two parts: (a) submitting the SF-424 Mandatory form through Grants.gov, and (b) submitting the rest of the application through the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS).   

Required Application Systems

All Applicants must be registered and have active accounts in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and AMIS to apply for funding by the applicable deadlines or their application will be considered ineligible. Organizations are advised to create these accounts if they do not yet have one or confirm that their existing accounts are up-to-date and active as soon as possible in order to avoid potential application submission problems. 

Both new and repeat Applicants should allow ample time to complete the entire registration and submission process well in advance of the application deadlines. Registration guidance is provided on each federal agency website. Please review each system’s requirements carefully. Detailed information is available in the FY 2024 NOFA.

Deadlines

• The deadline for submission of the SF-424 is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on March 14, 2024. All Applicants must submit their SF-424 electronically through Grants.gov. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted through Grants.gov at least three days before the deadline.
• The deadline for creating an organizational account in AMIS is 11:59 p.m. ET on March 14, 2024.
• The deadline for submitting the 2024 Title VI Compliance Worksheet in AMIS is 11:59 p.m. ET on March 14, 2024.
• Applicants using a Consortium Approach are asked to submit a Service Request in AMIS notifying the Capital Magnet Fund program of the organization’s intent to apply as part of a Consortium by 11:59 p.m. ET on March 14, 2024.
• The CDFI Fund will stop taking questions about the application at 5:00 p.m. ET on April 12, 2024.
• The deadline for submission of the Capital Magnet Fund application materials in AMIS is 11:59 p.m. ET on April 16, 2024.  The CDFI Fund strongly encourages all materials to be submitted through AMIS at least two days before the deadline.

Please see the FY 2024 NOFA for Applicant eligibility requirements and the steps for submitting all parts of the Capital Magnet Fund application.

Learn About Applying to the Capital Magnet Fund 

The CDFI Fund is hosting four live webinars via Zoom to share information and answer questions about the FY 2024 Capital Magnet Fund application. Details regarding the content of each webinar is provided, below. 

• The first and second webinars will provide information customized to the planned approach of prospective Applicants, as either a financing entity or an affordable housing developer/manager (Please note, all Applicants must choose to apply under one of two Entity Approaches—either (a) the financing Entity Approach or (b) the affordable housing developers/managers Entity Approach). 
• The third webinar will provide information to groups interested in applying as part of a Consortium. 
• The fourth webinar will provide a forum for all Applicants to answer additional questions prior to the Application deadline.

Please view the Step 2: Apply page of the Capital Magnet Fund website for the dates, times, and access information for each webinar. Advance registration is encouraged, but not required to participate in the webinars. After the live webinars, recordings of the presentations will be available on the Capital Magnet Fund website. The CDFI Fund will also post a pre-recorded webinar that provides a walkthrough of the AMIS application.

Questions

For more information on the Capital Magnet Fund, please submit a Service Request through AMIS (strongly preferred for fastest routing and response time). Alternatively, you can contact the CDFI Fund’s Help Desk by emailing cmf@cdfi.treas.gov or by calling (202) 653-0421. The CDFI Fund is unable to respond to questions about the FY 2024 application submitted after 5:00 p.m. ET on April 12, 2024.

To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit www.cdfifund.gov.