CDFI Fund Opens FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program Application Round

CDFI Fund Opens FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program Application Round

Thursday, January 16, 2025

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) today. The Awards from these programs will support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that provide affordable financing and related services to low-income communities and populations that lack access to credit, capital, and financial services.

Pending final Congressional appropriations, the CDFI Fund plans to award approximately $348 million in FY 2025 to be divided as follows:

• $155 million in CDFI Program Financial Assistance (FA) and Technical Assistance (TA) Awards.
• $25.2 million in NACA Program FA and TA Awards.
• $23.8 million in Persistent Poverty County-Financial Assistance (PPC-FA) Awards, which includes $21 million in PPC-FA Awards for CDFI Program Applicants and $2.8 million in PPC-FA Awards for NACA Program Applicants.
• $24 million for Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA) Awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program Applicants can apply for.
• $20 million for Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) Awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program Applicants can apply for.
• $100 million for Housing Production-Financial Assistance (HP-FA) Awards, which both CDFI Program and NACA Program Applicants can apply for.

Please note that, as of the date of these Notices of Funds Availability (NOFAs), the CDFI Fund is operating under a continuing funding resolution as enacted by the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Pub. L. 118-83). The CDFI Fund reserves the right to contact Applicants to seek additional information in the event that final FY 2025 appropriations for the CDFI Program or NACA Program change any of the requirements of the FY 2025 NOFAs.

A detailed overview of the CDFI Program, the NACA Program, and the types of Awards available can be found in the FY 2025 NOFAs for those programs. To learn more, please view the CDFI Program NOFA and NACA Program NOFA

Please read on to learn more about the FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program Application round.

FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program Application Materials

The electronic version of the Application in AMIS will be released in approximately one to two weeks. Reference copies of the NOFAs and all Application materials can be found on the CDFI Fund's website at:

• CDFI Program: www.cdfifund.gov/cdfi, under Step 2: Apply
• NACA Program: www.cdfifund.gov/native, under Step 2: Apply

Applicants are strongly encouraged to review all Application materials, including the NOFA, Application guidance, webinars, and presentations.

The CDFI Fund will continue to update the Application Materials section of the CDFI Program and NACA Program webpages with additional guidance materials and presentations. Keep an eye on the CDFI Fund's website for updates.

New for FY 2025: Housing Production-Financial Assistance (HP-FA) Award Opportunity

As part of this year's Application process, the CDFI Fund is inviting Applicants to compete for approximately $100 million in HP-FA funding. Awards are available for Applicants interested in financing the production of affordable housing for low-and moderate-income families. Interested Applicants may apply for an HP-FA Award either as a supplemental Award to a Base-FA Award or by itself without a Base-FA Award request.

The CDFI Fund encourages Applicants interested in HP-FA funding to carefully review the FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program NOFAs and the FA Application Guidance for more information about how to apply for an HP-FA Award. Applicants interested in applying only for an HP-FA Award, with no Base-FA Award request, should note that they will still need to submit a Base-FA Application following the special instructions in the FA Application Guidance.

In addition to submitting the Base-FA Application and all other required Application components, all HP-FA Applicants must submit a separate HP-FA Application component. The CDFI Fund will release the HP-FA Application, which will be an Excel spreadsheet, at a later date. Applicants will be provided at least 30 days to complete the Excel HP-FA Application before the HP-FA Application submission deadline in the NOFA.

Required Application Systems

All Applicants must be registered and have active accounts in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and the CDFI Fund's Awards Management Information System (AMIS) by February 18, 2025, or they will be ineligible to apply for funding. All Applicants are also required to have the correct EIN and DUNS numbers attached to the relevant SAM.gov and AMIS accounts by February 18, 2025. As soon as possible, organizations should either create these accounts if they don't exist, or confirm that their existing accounts are current, in order to avoid Application submission problems. Detailed information is available in the FY 2025 NOFA for each program.

New Applicants are encouraged to begin the registration process for each of the systems now, and registration guidance is provided on each website. The CDFI Fund provided an initial overview of the steps to register in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and AMIS in its Impact Blog on December 19, 2024. However, the CDFI Fund does not manage SAM.gov or Grants.gov, and processes for these systems may have changed since then. Please review each system's requirements carefully.

Both new and repeat Applicants should allow ample time to complete the entire registration and submission process well in advance of the Application deadline. Please see the applicable NOFAs for more information on submitting the CDFI Program and NACA Program Applications.

Timeline

• Applicants applying for FA under the CDFI or NACA Program must be Certified CDFIs as of January 16, 2025 in order to be eligible to apply. Applicants are not required to be Certified CDFIs to apply for TA.
• Applicants must both submit their SF-424 electronically via Grants.gov and create an AMIS account before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on February 18, 2025.
  • CDFI Program Grant.gov Funding Number: CDFI-2025-FATA
  • NACA Program Grants.gov Funding Number: CDFI-2025-NACA
• Complete CDFI Program and NACA Program funding Applications, including any supplemental DF-FA, HFFI-FA, or PPC-FA Applications and the Title VI Compliance Worksheet, must be submitted electronically through AMIS before 11:59 p.m. ET on March 21, 2025.
• Applicants interested in applying for HP-FA either as a supplemental award or by itself with no Base-FA award request also must complete and submit their CDFI Program or NACA Program funding Applications and indicate their intent to apply for an HP-FA award by the AMIS Application submission deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on March 21, 2025. HP-FA Applicants must also complete and submit the Excel HP-FA Application as an attachment to an AMIS Service Request by 11:59 p.m. ET on April 4, 2025.
• The CDFI Fund strongly encourages Applicants to submit materials at least three days before each corresponding Application submission deadline.
• The CDFI Fund will not respond to any Applicant questions about the FY 2025 Application round after 5:00 p.m. ET on March 19, 2025. Technical support for AMIS will not be available after 5:00 p.m. ET on March 21, 2025.

Please see the applicable NOFAs for more information on submitting the CDFI Program and NACA Program Applications.

Learn About Applying to the CDFI and NACA Programs

The CDFI Fund will conduct multiple live webinars to inform Applicants about the FY 2025 CDFI Program and NACA Program Applications and two additional webinars for Applicants to each (CDFI and NACA) Program to answer Applicant questions. Applicants are highly encouraged to attend these webinars to understand recent updates to the FA and TA Applications and evaluation process. Please view the Application Materials section of the CDFI Program and NACA Program webpages for the dates, times, and access information for each webinar. Advance registration is not required to participate in the webinars.

Questions

For more information on the CDFI Program or the NACA Program, please contact the CDFI Fund's Help Desk by e-mailing [email protected] or by calling (202) 653-0421 (option 1) (please note this is not a toll-free number).