Business Funding Opportunities through the CIC BIPOC Loan Program

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Thursday, Feb 23, 2023  9am - 10am

Location

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Details

Hear from CIC (Community Investment Corporation) Executive Director Danny Knee about the BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund.

The BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund is a one-of-a-kind fund where BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) business owners in Southern Arizona can apply for 0% interest, no collateral loan ranging from $500 to $10,000. All loan decisions are made by a committee of BIPOC business owners and community leaders and storytelling is the center of the application and approval process. While basic business information, demographics, and declarations are included, business owner’s personal and professional narratives are what the committee uses to make funding decisions. Once the loans are approved, BIPOC entrepreneurs receive financial literacy mentorship and guidance from Community Investment Corporation’s (CIC) lending team, to make sure the business is set up for success.

The loan fund rose out of a desire of CIC’s staff wanting to take concrete and tangible action in the wake of 2020 and ongoing national tragedies and calls for racial equity and justice. The BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund challenges the way loans are made to BIPOC entrepreneurs needing capital to start and grow their businesses. It addresses the massive disparities in lending outcomes for BIPOC entrepreneurs by transferring all decision-making, including the establishment eligibility and underwriting criteria and loan approval, from financial technocrats (who are partly responsible for the aforementioned disparities) to the BIPOC community. A committee of BIPOC community members spent 9 months developing the loan product and approach to overcome some of the well-documented barriers to capital access for BIPOC business owners. Since the program’s inception in 2020, the BIPOC Community Managed Loan has funded 31 small businesses in southern Arizona, ranging in industries such as Agriculture, Bookkeeping, Retail, Event Planning, Floral, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, and Media & Marketing.

About the speaker: Danny Knee is the Executive Director of Community Investment Corporation (CIC), a nonprofit organization that works to increase access to the economy through homeownership, education, and entrepreneurship. He has over 20 years in the nonprofit sector which includes a wide array of community development and affordable housing experience including as the Deputy Director of Habitat for Humanity Tucson where he oversaw the construction of 200 single family homes. Under his leadership, CIC has been recognized three years in a row by the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce - as the most impactful nonprofit organization in 2020 and 2022 and as the region’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion champion in 2021. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Danny also has an MBA from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in City & Regional Planning from Rutgers University. Danny's professional work now focuses on disparities in capital access and creating solutions to reduce inequities in how money moves in through our economy. As co-founder with his wife, Cecily, of a web development company, Single Focus Web, that exclusively serves nonprofits, he also has experience as an entrepreneur and small business owner.