Director Kimberly A. Reed, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, U.S. Treasury Department, personally congratulated CL Fund for its recent $600,000 award during a tour of CL Fund borrower sites yesterday.  

 

One of only 68 awards across the country, CL Fund will use the award to further its growth capital funding for small businesses, impacting the low income and economically distressed communities where many of these small businesses are located. 

 

As a mark of the Treasury Department’s commitment to economic development, Director Reed joined CL Fund and several of its investors and funders for a tour of businesses benefiting from CL Fund’s financing. 

 

The tour included a visit to the new PNC site in downtown Pittsburgh with subcontractor Cosmos Technologies, a small minority-owned engineering company on the verge of expansion; Propel School in Homestead, founded to lead education reform throughout the Pittsburgh region and now serving 1,270 students in four schools; and North Hills Community Outreach in Millvale, a human services agency founded in 1987 after people in northern Allegheny County mobilized to help local flood victims.

 

Transportation was provided by Transportation Solutions, a minority-owned company that recently ranked 53^rd as one of the fastest growing inner city companies in the U.S. on the 2007 Inner City 100 list. Both the catered lunch and table linens highlighted additional businesses financed by CL Fund – Greco’s Gourmet Catering in Washington, Pa., and John’s Specialty Linen Service in East Pittsburgh.

 

During lunch at the Millvale Community Center, Director Reed presented CL Fund with a certificate to commemorate CL Fund’s commitment to using the $600,000 award to improve the lives of residents in low income communities via its small business lending programs.

 

“We at the CDFI Fund would like to thank the CL Fund for its good work and its efforts to further the mission of all CDFIs,” said Director Reed. She continued by recognizing that CL Fund has received $4,763,400 in grants from the CDFI Fund, which has leveraged $37.9 million in lending to date.

 

Director Reed oversees the CDFI Fund’s various programs aimed at expanding the capacity of financial institutions to provide credit, investment capital, and financial services to distressed urban and rural communities in the United States. Originally from West Virginia, Ms. Reed has a genuine interest in western Pennsylvania and its surrounding regions.

The CDFI Fund's mission is to expand the capacity of financial institutions to provide credit, capital, and financial services to underserved populations and communities in the United States. Created for the purpose of promoting economic revitalization and community development through investment in and assistance to CDFIs, the CDFI Fund promotes access to capital and local economic growth through its CDFI Program, its New Markets Tax Credit Program, its Bank Enterprise Award and its Native Initiatives. Since its creation, the CDFI Fund has awarded $820 million to community development organizations and financial institutions.