CDFI PARTNER GRANTS
When Mascoma Community Development (MCD) receives a fee through its New Markets Tax Credit activities, a portion is reinvested as a grant to support a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) partner that is local to the underlying NMTC project. This aligns with MCD’s goal of fostering positive change by supporting economic opportunity and sustained community transformation.
Mascoma Community Development has funded CDFI Partner Grants aimed at addressing community needs such as:
- Childcare
- Community health
- Affordable Housing
- Small business support
- Education
MCD has funded $1,213,750 in CDFI Partner Grants aimed at addressing the specific needs of the community as identified by our CDFI partners:
$223,750 For Childcare
BrightBridge Capital is using its $75,000 grant to:
- Expand a nonprofit daycare center located in Manchester, TN
- Provide safe, affordable childcare for economically challenged area workers
- Double the childcare capacity of the childcare center and allow for multiple shifts
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund is using its $48,750 grant to:
- Address childcare needs in Greater Nashua, NH, through leveraging direct relationships with childcare centers and actively exploring state and local partnerships
- Use a Business of Child Care support model to tackle the business needs of centers
- Offer mini grants and in-depth technical assistance
Genesis Community Loan Fund is using its $100,000 grant to:
- Assess the capacity of childcare in Greater Madison, ME, and collaborate directly with local providers
- Bring together financial resources to expand access to quality, affordable childcare
- Provide financial technical assistance and underwriting for ready entrepreneurs and childcare business operators
$485,000 for Small Business Support

South Carolina Community Loan Fund plans to use its $75,000 grant to:
- Enhance financial literacy knowledge for 25 individuals.
- Provide financial resources for estimated participants by awarding small grants for attending and completing coursework.
- Offer 6 hours of technical assistance to individuals.
Nectar (f/k/a MCCI) is using its $45,000 grant to:
- Provide technical assistance to 20 clients.
- Fund 5 new loans totaling $500,000 to LMI (4), BIPOC (5), and women (3) owned businesses.
- Support the creation/retention of 20 jobs by these borrowers.
Rockingham Economic Development Council will use its $50,000 grant to:
- Provide comprehensive technical assistance to 20 entrepreneurs and businesses across New Hampshire.
- Support the creation/retention of 40 jobs.
Pursuit Community Finance will use its $80,000 grant to:
- Conduct marking and outreach campaign targeting Olean area small businesses to promote in-market trainings and resources.
- Hold in-person financial management training sessions in Olean and round surrounding communities.
- Provide 1:1 advisory service to small businesses focused on addressing barriers to accessing capital through credit repair, loan packaging, financial statement development and access to professional services.
- Provide intensive consulting services around building websites, implementing e-commerce solutions, QuickBooks software and training, marketing/strategic planning to small businesses.
- Provide access to capital to small businesses directly or through is Main Street loans to startup and early-stage businesses.
Regional Economic Development Center is using its $90,000 grant to:
- Expand the statewide Kiva microloan program, which helps borrowers access up to $15,000 in capital via crowdfunding
- Offer more New Hampshire companies the chance to start and grow
- Provide technical assistance to small business owners
Pathway Lending is using its $60,000 grant to:
- Provide one-on-one technical assistance to small businesses through the Small Business Administration microloan program throughout Upper Cumberland County, TN
- Improve the health and welfare of people in low-income communities, including women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses
Common Capital is using its $35,000 grant to:
- Expand lending and internal capacity to provide direct technical assistance to small businesses in Western Massachusetts owned by low-to-moderate income individuals, BIPOC, and women
- Enable borrowers to create additional jobs
Michigan Women Forward is using its $50,000 grant to:
- Award 10 small grants or loans to fund financial/accounting, legal, and digital marketing support
- Award 5 grants to support short term business operational needs or payment relief
- Provide technical assistance to support 15 small businesses
Finance Fund Capital Corporation is using its $75,000 grant to:
- Support long-term sustainability for distressed communities in Northwest Ohio
- Assist businesses/nonprofits providers of essential goods and/or services that have a dire need for low-cost capital to maintain the viability of their organizations. Oftentimes, these borrowers are the only organizations that provide the types of services they offer in the community.
$100,000 for Affordable Housing & Community Health
BlueHub Loan Fund plans to use its $100,000 grant to:
- Support the North Shore Community Development Coalition’s “El Centro” project in Massachusetts in the construction of a community health center and ~50 units of affordable housing for seniors
- Support pre-development soft costs, including architectural and engineering costs
- Devote funds to underutilized public spaces, including the Salem Harborwalk and public park, to create better public accessibility to the waterfront
- Work with the City of Salem, MA, to make the area more resilient and better protected from climate change
$165,000 for Education
Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation is using its $100,000 grant to:
- Provide grants to be used for structural, functional, and deferred maintenance needs on single family rental homes within the city limits of Perham, MN,
- Each grant will require matching dollars from landlords, incentivizing $100,000 of additional private investment,
- Complete improvements to extend the useful life of single-family rental homes,
- Boost to local contractors, material suppliers, and other retailers.
Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation is using its $50,000 grant to:
- In partnership with the local Owatonna Independent School District (761 Foundation, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization), provide up to twenty-five $2,000 scholarships for students that attend a local technical or community college
- Develop the skills of graduating high school students, ALC students, and adult learners
- Help fill skilled positions in the strong, established manufacturing industry of Owatonna, MN with younger qualified applicants
Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation is using its additional $40,000 grant to:
- In partnership with the local Owatonna Independent School District (761 Foundation, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization), provide funds to support the 761 Foundation’s mini grant program.
- Each year the Foundation awards mini grants to programs and activities that enhance educational opportunities for all its students.
- These funds will specifically support science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM) mini grant needs.
Vermont Community Loan Fund will us its $50,000 grant to:
- Provide a subsidized, 0% loan capital to meet critical needs for affordable housing development to Cornerstone Housing Partners to support the Cora B. Whitney senior residence development in Bennington, VT.
- Preserve 22 units and created 12 new units of housing.
Vermont Community Loan Fund will use its $65,000 grant to:
- Provide a 0% loan to Rural Edge Housing & Community Development in St. Johnsbury to rehabilitate 15 units of affordable senior housing in Barton, VT.
Read more about Mascoma Community Development and our projects here.
Questions about community development lending through MCD? Please contact a member of the MCD team.
In accordance with federal law and the U.S. Department of the Treasury policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write to Department of the Treasury, Office of Civil Rights and Diversity, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington D.C., 20220 or call (202) 622-1160.

