Dogwood Health Trust Partners with CDFI Friendly America to Lead Access to Capital Learning Cohort
PRESS RELEASE: May 21, 2024
Media Contact:
Erica Allison, Formation PR + Brand media@formationpr.com / 828-358-4867
Cohort to convene for two years with a focus on more inclusive and dynamic local economies
Asheville, N.C. – Dogwood Health Trust has tapped CDFI Friendly America to help lead Dogwood’s WNC Access to Capital Learning Cohort of non-traditional small business lenders, such as Community Development Financing Institutions (CDFI). Working with CDFI Friendly America, the cohort will work to increase the regional supply of financing and small business support services, especially among people and communities of color and within rural communities.
According to Dogwood’s WNC Capital Landscape Assessment report commissioned in 2022, roughly only one in every 30 existing small businesses in Western North Carolina, or just over 3%, gets access to startup, operating and/or growth capital from formal sources. “We know that local small businesses are the bedrock of Western North Carolina's economy, creating financial security for owners, their families, and their employees,” said Dr. Susan Mims, CEO of Dogwood Health Trust. “When mission-aligned lenders are better able to support the creation and expansion of small businesses that lack access to traditional resources, a more diverse and thriving local economy develops. Dogwood is eager to partner with CDFI Friendly America to facilitate this work with our local CDFIs, and ultimately fuel success for communities who have lacked critical capital access.”
CDFI Friendly America has a national reputation for increasing CDFI financing to historically under-financed people, organizations, and businesses in places where they live and work. CDFI Friendly America will organize and lead the WNC Access to Capital cohort’s work through eight quarterly convenings over two years focusing on three phases: assessing local market conditions and barriers, educating and organizing the local market, and planning and implementing a cohort strategy. In addition, the Cohort participants will learn from national experts and benefit from technical assistance.
“CDFIs and their peer mission-driven financial institutions lend just outside the margin of their conventional partners to serve under-financed and underestimated people and places,” explained Mark Pinsky, president of CFA. “The Cohort participants will learn together and from each other. CFA will bring in the experiences of CDFIs from across the nation doing similar work over the past 40 years. As a result, the lenders in Western North Carolina will develop and implement a collaborative strategy built around shared goals."
For more information, on CFA, please visit cdfifriendlyamerica.com.
About Dogwood Health Trust
Dogwood Health Trust is a private foundation based in Asheville, North Carolina with the sole purpose of dramatically improving the health and wellbeing of all people and communities of 18 counties and the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina. Dogwood Health Trust focuses on innovative and equitable ways to address the many factors that contribute to overall health and wellbeing, with a focus on housing, education, economic opportunity, and health and wellness. Dogwood Health Trust works to create a Western North Carolina where every generation can live, learn, earn and thrive, with dignity and opportunity for all, no exceptions. To learn more, please visit www.dht.org.