Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has awarded more than $103 million in unrestricted funding to Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs) across the country, marking one of the largest single investments in Native financial institutions.
The funding, part of a broader $2 billion giving initiative announced in a blog post Wednesday, includes grants ranging from $1 million to $13 million to 30 Native-led and Native-serving CDFIs nationwide.
The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation in Oklahoma received the largest publicly disclosed grant at $13 million, followed by $12 million each to the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and Hawai’i Community Lending. Several additional grants were made, but their amounts are being temporarily withheld for the benefit of recipients, including Four Bands Community Fund, Four Directions Development Corporation, NACDC Financial Services, and Pacific Northwest Tribal Lending.
Native CDFIs, which are Native-led financial institutions serving Indigenous communities, will use the funding to expand access to affordable housing, business loans, financial education, and clean energy projects in Native communities.
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