U.S. Department of the Treasury Announces FY 2025 and FY 2026 Awards for Multiple CDFI Fund Programs

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced awards for the FY 2025 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) and Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Programs, and the FY 2026 Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) and Small Dollar Loan (SDL) Programs. The awards announced today will collectively support the increase of safe and affordable financial services, small business and consumer lending, and community development investments nationwide. 

“Today’s awards reflect Treasury’s commitment to ensuring responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and advancing economic opportunity in communities that need it most,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Treasury will maintain oversight of these awards to ensure they spur investment in low-income and distressed communities, support local economic growth, expand opportunity, and deliver lasting results for the American people.”

“The CDFI Fund’s programs are designed to support economic growth and prosperity for Main Street America,” said CDFI Fund Director Chris Miller. “The awards announced today will help small businesses expand and create jobs, help workers build credit and save for the future, and help more families achieve the American dream.”   

Background

The awards are being made using funds appropriated by Congress through the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Pub. L. 119-4) that would have expired on September 30, 2026. 

Consistent with Congressional intent, Treasury announced these awards to support economic growth and opportunity in communities across the country. At the same time, the Trump Administration is leaving no stone unturned in protecting taxpayer dollars and ensuring Federal funds are used lawfully and for their intended purposes. 

Treasury continues to closely review these awards throughout their periods of performance—including through audits, compliance reviews, and other monitoring of awardee performance and expenditures—to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in its programs and to ensure that awardees do not engage in practices that violate federal anti-discrimination laws. 

Treasury’s reviews will assess, as applicable, requirements under Executive Order 14332, Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking; Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity; Executive Order 14281, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy; Executive Order 14218, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders; and other applicable Executive Orders and Federal requirements. 

Where Treasury identifies material noncompliance, it will use the remedies available under law and the terms of the award, including terminating unused funds, seeking recapture of previously disbursed funds, and pursuing decertification or other appropriate action where authorized.

Examples of each program’s Assistance Agreement terms will be posted to the CDFI Fund’s website in the coming weeks. Awarded organizations will receive official notifications of their awards through their CDFI Fund Awards Management Information System (AMIS) accounts on or before September 30, 2026.

Community Development Financial Institutions Program

The CDFI Program provides awards to emerging and Certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to invest in and build their organizational capacity, empowering them to expand their reach, ensure long-term stability, and revitalize local neighborhoods and communities. CDFI Program Financial Assistance (FA) awards can be used for financial products, loan loss reserves, capital reserves, financial services and development services. Technical Assistance (TA) awards are used for capacity development that is integral to a CDFI’s organizational sustainability, and for operational support that enables emerging CDFIs to become certified. 

This is the second and final announcement of awards for the FY 2025 application round of the CDFI Program. Previously, on September 30, 2025, the CDFI Fund announced more than $6.8 million in FY 2025 CDFI Program TA awards; those awards were funded through FY 2024 appropriations that were due to expire on September 30, 2025. 

Native American CDFI Assistance Program

The CDFI Fund operates the NACA Program concurrently with the CDFI Program. While both programs provide Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance awards through a competitive process, the NACA Program specifically awards funding to CDFIs that primarily serve Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals and communities. 

This is the second and final announcement of awards for the FY 2025 application round of the NACA Program. Previously, on September 30, 2025, the CDFI Fund announced $1.95 million in FY 2025 NACA Program TA awards; those awards were funded through FY 2024 appropriations that were due to expire on September 30, 2025.

Bank Enterprise Award Program

The BEA Program awards provide financial incentives to FDIC-insured depository institutions that exhibit a quantifiable increase in investments directed towards CDFIs or that increase their own lending, investing, or service operations in severely distressed areas. For the purposes of this program, "distressed communities" are characterized by conditions where at least 30 percent of the population lives below the national poverty level and the unemployment rate is no less than 1.5 times the national average. The BEA Program awards will be reinvested into economically distressed communities and CDFIs, thereby fostering additional economic opportunities.

Small Dollar Loan Program

The SDL Program helps Certified CDFIs address the issue of expanding consumer access to mainstream financial institutions and provide alternatives to high-cost small dollar loans for unbanked and underbanked communities. Through the SDL Program, the CDFI Fund provides Loan Loss Reserves awards to enable CDFIs to establish a loan loss reserve fund to defray the costs of establishing or maintaining a small dollar loan program; and Technical Assistance awards to support technology, staffing, and other eligible activities to enable a CDFI to establish and maintain a small dollar loan program. 

To learn more about how Treasury’s CDFI Fund is advancing opportunity in communities across America, visit www.cdfifund.gov. 

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