A new national nonprofit fund launched with a $40-million donation will help community development financial institutions (CDFIs) expand access to operating capital for small businesses.
Truist Financial Corporation’s initial donation will establish CornerSquare Community Capital, which will help select CDFIs through the purchase of 25-percent loan participations.
CornerSquare and Truist will enable participating CDFIs to increase lending capacity with existing capital, expanding reach and support to more small businesses in their operating areas. Funding will be allocated to racially and ethnically diverse small business owners, women and individuals in low- and moderate-income communities with a focus on Black-owned small businesses.
CornerSquare Community Capital will operate as a subsidiary of the NC Rural Center, a nonprofit that has worked for more than 30 years to support small business owners and entrepreneurs in low- and moderate-income communities. The creation of the new nonprofit also marks the expansion of the Raleigh-based NC Rural Center to help bring its suite of lending and small business development programs to markets across Truist’s footprint with the goal of creating a sustainable model.
The fund will help underserved small businesses with their single largest need — operating capital — and allow selected CDFI partners to do more with existing capital, enabling them to expand reach and scope while increasing collective support of historically under-resourced small businesses, NC Rural Center President Patrick Woodie said.
“Our nonprofit and CDFI partners allow us to swiftly deploy capital to meet critical community needs, which is vital in our current environment,” said Truist Chief Community Reinvestment Act Officer Sharon Jeffries-Jones.
CornerSquare Community Capital will initially focus on CDFIs located in Truist’s footprint of 17 states throughout the Southeast, mid-Atlantic, including Washington, D.C., and parts of the Midwest.
Initial CDFIs that will participate in the Truist loan fund administered by CornerSquare Capital, include:
- Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) in Georgia;
- Black Business Investment Fund (BBIF) in Florida;
- LiftFund in Texas, and also operating in 13 states;
- Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIFund) in West Virginia, and operating in nine states;
- Pathway Lending in Tennessee and also operating in Alabama; and,
- Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF) in Washington, D.C, and also operating in Maryland and Virginia.
The CDFIs will offer varied loan products with minimum loan amounts as low as $5,000. Small businesses interested in applying for loans may contact the CDFI partners directly for more information. For more information on the program, visit www.cornersquare.org
The donation represents funding from both the Truist Foundation Inc., established in 2020, and the Truist Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund (DAF) created by Truist and administered by The Winston-Salem Foundation. It’s the largest single charitable commitment to the CDFI sector in Truist’s history through its heritage BB&T and SunTrust brands.
Truist is the result of a merger between BB&T Bank and SunTrust and trades via the symbol TFC on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Charlotte-based Truist is the sixth-largest commercial bank in the United States, with total assets of $504 billion as of June 30.
