The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. has been awarded $1 million from the federal Community Development Financial Institutions fund.
WWBIC, a CDFI, works to expand economic opportunity for women, people of color and low-income individuals by offering microlending and business training.
According to WWBIC, the organization expects the funding will allow it to leverage additional investor capital to meet the demand from its clients. It expects to deploy the $1 million over three years.
Seven Wisconsin CDFIs received grants from the fund in this round, for a total of $3.7 million. WWBIC’s was the largest grant. A total of $187 million was awarded nationwide.
WWBIC has received funding from the CDFI fund since 1998. It also receives federal funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Last year, WWBIC received $686,500 from the CDFI fund.
“These are really helpful grant awards,” said Wendy Baumann, president and chief visionary officer at WWBIC. “It really helps us with our balance sheet, it helps WWBIC specifically with equity in our loan fund that we can in turn leverage and borrow money.”
