New York &ndash; The Citi Foundation (the &ldquo;Foundation&rdquo;) today announced its first-ever <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/foundation/programs/global-innovation-challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">Global Innovation Challenge</a> to help scale the impact of nonprofits around the world that are developing innovative solutions to improve food security. This inaugural challenge will provide a collective $25 million to 50 organizations to support the piloting or expansion of ideas and projects that are designed to address this issue and strengthen the physical and financial health of low-income families and communities.
With 770 million people suffering from some form of malnutrition around the world, food security is one of today&rsquo;s top global crises. A <a href="https://www.citivelocity.com/citigps/food-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">recent study</a> from Citi Global Perspectives &amp; Solutions (GPS) found that the estimated impact of malnutrition on the global economy could be as high as $3.5 trillion per year &mdash; or close to $500 for every individual on the planet &ndash; stemming from record high food prices and other macro-economic factors that have led to civil unrest, global displacement and more.
&ldquo;Far too many families around the world face the daily struggle of not knowing when and where their next meal will come from,&rdquo; said Brandee McHale, President of the Citi Foundation and Head of Citi Community Investing and Development. &ldquo;We understand the economic factors that contribute to this ever-growing crisis, and our goal with this RFP is to help empower diverse, mission-driven nonprofits that are pioneering game-changing, scalable solutions in their communities.&rdquo;
For this RFP, the Citi Foundation will prioritize projects in four areas:
<ul>
<li>Access: Support efforts that increase access to affordable and healthy food to low-income communities.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Affordability: Improve food affordability through community finance efforts that help reduce the financial burden placed on low-income communities.</li>
<li>Availability: Address challenges in the food supply chain that lead to positive community benefits, such as the creation of new jobs and businesses.</li>
<li>Resilience: Increase the number of available resources that enable low-income communities to more effectively prepare for and respond to disruptions in food security during crises.</li>
</ul>
"The food security crisis is one of the most urgent issues our world is facing today,&rdquo; said Liza Henshaw, President, Global Citizen. &ldquo;Having proudly partnered with Citi for over 10 years, we have seen first-hand the positive impact the Citi Foundation has had helping lift underserved communities out of poverty. This global initiative is going to provide much needed funding to industrious organizations working to combat food scarcity with the innovative solutions we desperately need.&rdquo;
The first Global Innovation Challenge builds upon Citi and the Foundation&rsquo;s history of support of addressing food security:
<ul>
<li>Citi and Citi Foundation&rsquo;s support has helped No Kid Hungry provide 300 million meals for kids facing hunger since 2014.</li>
<li>Citi volunteers have packed over 1.7 million meals on behalf of U.S. Hunger since 2017.</li>
<li>In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, the Foundation supported the Global FoodBanking Network&rsquo;s COVID-19 relief efforts across Central and South America.</li>
<li>In Asia, the Foundation&rsquo;s support for Think City in 2020 helped them partner with four community organizations in Malaysia to ensure vulnerable populations received food and medical supplies.</li>
<li>Most recently in Europe, financial support from the Foundation helped Crown Agents International Development purchase and deliver nutritional support for premature infants in Ukraine amidst the conflict.</li>
</ul>
The deadline to register is March 22, 2023, at 4 p.m. EDT. For more information on this opportunity including the eligibility requirements and target geographies, please visit: <a href="http://www.citifoundation.com/challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">www.citifoundation.com/challenge</a>
<hr />
Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.citifoundation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">www.citifoundation.com.</a>

The $25 million request for proposals seeks to support nonprofits leading groundbreaking food security projects that are designed to boost the physical and financial health of underserved communities.

Citi Foundation Announces Inaugural Global Innovation Challenge To Empower Nonprofits Improving Food Security Around The World

By Kristen Scheyder, Senior Program Officer, Citi Foundation
Answering the Call 
In June of 2020, the Citi Foundation issued a competitive request for proposals (RFP) to provide $15 million in unrestricted grant funding &ndash; also referred to as enterprise capital - for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) serving small businesses owned by people of color and low- and moderate-income communities around the U.S. adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp; During this unprecedented time, CDFIs were confronting new challenges they had never faced before &ndash; overwhelming demand from new clients, the need to set up systems to engage both clients and employees remotely, and the imperative to capitalize on various federal, state and local programs to benefit their clients -- all while trying to raise money to support their operations and generate loan capital. &nbsp;
In speaking with CDFIs, the Citi Foundation quickly recognized their need for flexible support to meet these challenges and that each organization had unique needs based on their individual organization and the communities they served. Some needed to staff up, some needed to invest in technology, and others needed to free up their balance sheet so they could participate in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and other local guarantee programs.&nbsp; Many CDFIs were also expanding the breadth and depth of the technical assistance they were providing to small businesses to help them survive the pandemic. &nbsp;This was especially true for businesses owned by people of color. According to <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/understanding-cdfis-impact-lmi-neighborhoods.pdf?amp=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">research</a> conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the odds of Black- and Hispanic- owned firms applying to CDFIs were 1.6 and 1.7 times greater, respectively, than that of similar white-owned firms.
Through our RFP initiative, <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/news/press-release/2020/citi-foundation-provides-15-million-in-support-to-30-community-development-financial-institutions-across-the-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">30 CDFIs</a> were selected to each receive unrestricted grant support of $500,000 for a total of $15 million.&nbsp; Here are some highlights of how recipients used their flexible funding.
Grantee Highlights 
Scaling up lending practices&nbsp; &nbsp;
BOC Capital Corp (BCC) used the unrestricted funding to leverage new capital sources, support reserves requirements and adjust underwriting guidelines to facilitate greater capital access for entrepreneurs of color. The funding also served as a required match for BCC&rsquo;s successful application for a Federal CDFI grant of over $700,000 and enabled BCC to advance funding for PPP loans that resulted in more than 1,400 PPP loans for over $37 million. Citi Foundation support also contributed to BCC&rsquo;s net asset ratio necessary to qualify for a $1.5 million equity equivalent investment targeted to Black-owned businesses and additional loans and grants. Further, BCC was able to make quick decisions that ultimately attracted new capital and increased its capacity to help so many diverse businesses needing support.
&ldquo;Citi Foundation&rsquo;s unrestricted funding has given us the opportunity to expand our services and increase our lending capacity to underserved businesses who were deeply impacted by disproportionate and inequitable assistance. With this support, we were able to empower small business owners with hands-on support and financing and advance our economic justice mission.&rdquo; &ndash; Nancy Carin, Executive Director of BOC Capital Corp.
Ability to make larger loans to nonprofits to advance equity goals
For the Four Bands Community Fund, unrestricted funding enabled them to scale the organization's activity by providing the catalytic capital needed to do so. Four Bands leveraged their grant funds and gained access to over $1 million in debt for lending capital. By utilizing the funding from the Citi Foundation to finance debt and equity and deploy larger loans to their communities, Four Bands increased their average loan size from $57,000 in 2020 to $130,500 in 2021. Additionally, the capital allowed Four Bands to amplify the voice of a group of regional leaders called the Mountain Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition. The Coalition is a grassroots effort to amplify the strength of indigenous communities in the region, and is also advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in rural areas of the U.S.
Evolving underwriting criteria for loan products, particularly to small business owners and entrepreneurs of color
The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) is a CDFI that acts as a network of over 200 nonprofits serving diverse Hispanic/Latino communities. With the unrestricted grant support from the Citi Foundation and other funders, NALCAB launched the Small Business Loan Guarantee program. The program offers support to network member lenders to make quality loans to small businesses that would not have otherwise qualified for a loan under the lender&rsquo;s established underwriting criteria. Specifically, the program guarantees the lesser of 50% of loan principal or $10,000 for small business loans $75,000 for real estate secured small business loans.&nbsp; Through March 2023, 47 guarantees have made $2,395,000 in small business loans possible. NALCAB also utilized the Acceso Loan Fund to provide liquidity to three NALCAB network lenders with low-cost debt to facilitate PPP lending to Latino small businesses. The first round of funding was valued at $6.37 million and NALCAB redeployed an additional $5.25 million for a second round which ultimately funded 640 small businesses.
Learnings and Outcomes
What <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/news/perspective/2020/supporting-cdfis-the-original-social-entrepreneurs" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">we said back in 2020</a> and in the decades of supporting community finance institutions across the U.S., holds very much true today. &ldquo;CDFIs matter now, more than ever, to ensure that even the most affected businesses and communities can stabilize and thrive&rdquo;. CDFIs continue to play a vital role in expanding access to safe and affordable financial products and services for individuals and small businesses in low- and moderate-income communities, and their creativity and commitment really shined through in the work they have done to assist individuals, communities and small businesses adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our decision in 2020 to provide the $15 million in unrestricted grant support has enabled the 30 CDFIs grantees, to nimbly respond to the unique needs of their individual communities and collectively deploy over $7.2 billion in capital to more than 320,000 small businesses around the country. And the clients that ultimately benefited from the lending and technical support provided by these 30 CDFIs were predominantly low to moderate-income and/or small business owners and entrepreneurs of color, as well as women and veterans. &nbsp;
We continue to learn from the transformational work of CDFIs and community finance organizations across the country. Our $15 million program was followed by additional initiatives in subsequent years to continue supporting small business providers and community finance organizations. To read more, visit our <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/foundation/programs/community-finance-innovation-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">Community Financial Innovation Fund</a> page.
*Impact numbers self-reported by grantee organizations

Reflections on the Citi Foundation’s Community Development Finance Institutions Initiative 

By Kristen Scheyder, Senior Program Officer, Citi Foundation
Small businesses are essential service providers to communities, especially in times of need. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses were on the frontlines caring for children, preparing and delivering food, and providing healthcare and other services that enabled larger businesses to continue to operate and communities to survive. As the U.S. continued its economic recovery efforts, the Citi Foundation recognized that entrepreneurs that were able to keep their doors open required high-quality advice on how to navigate the rules of public support programs, adapt to COVID-19 public health restrictions, and develop new plans for financial stability.&nbsp;
In 2021 through its <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/foundation/programs/past-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">Small Business Technical Assistance</a> (SBTA) initiative, the Citi Foundation provided $25 million in total grant support to 50 nonprofit organizations around the U.S. Each organization received $500,000 in unrestricted funding to support their continued work in providing technical assistance to small businesses owned by people of color that were disproportionately impacted by the unprecedented health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the course of the grant period, the organizations collectively provided technical assistance to more than 133,000 small businesses. Amongst the businesses served, 79% were owned by people of color and more than 42% were owned by women. 99% of the businesses had less than 50 employees.
The 50 community organizations provided a wide range of technical assistance programming including strategic and financial planning, legal services, technology solutions, and application assistance directly to small businesses across the country. One example is Lutheran Social Services of New York Family Child Care (LSSNY-FCC), which served 119 minority-owned business owners with capacity building, direct assistance, and technical support to stabilize each business and rebuild from the pandemic. They provided remote learning classes to quarantined children and virtual coaching to providers in implementing a play-based curriculum that was appropriate to children.
Many small businesses also needed help to adapt to the shifting business landscape caused by closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One such business was <a href="https://sweetdelightcheesecakes.com/pages/meet-the-baker" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">Sweet Delight Cheesecake</a>, a small business owned by Nadia, a Haitian American immigrant who, in 2019, had participated in the Florida International University&rsquo;s (FIU) StartUP FIU Local incubator and doubled her revenue in just six months. She received loans and opened her first retail space in February 2020, right before the March 2020 lockdown. Determined to see the business succeed, Nadia pivoted her business and grew revenue with deliveries and online sales. In 2021, however, she experienced a decrease in sales and foot traffic. Nadia turned to StartUP FIU Local again to work on marketing; specifically, on incorporating a dynamic digital marketing plan with targeted outreach and blogging. She also began using new technology to manage monthly incentives for new and existing clients and maximized her location by renting space for special events. Due to these efforts, her revenues grew by 34%.
&ldquo;Nadia&rsquo;s story is so much like the other small businesses we work with,&rdquo; says Emily Gresham, Co-Founder of StartUP FIU and Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development at FIU, &ldquo;what&rsquo;s important here is that support organizations like ours have the ability to quickly adapt to changing needs. Receiving unrestricted support from the Citi Foundation gave us the flexibility to be there to help our local small businesses navigate these uncertain times.&rdquo;
These are just a few examples of the dedicated community organizations we invested in and the impact they have achieved. The unrestricted funding dispersed through this initiative helped make sure that small businesses received the individualized support they needed to survive and thrive through the pandemic. Nevertheless, small businesses around the country are facing new economic challenges, all while still encountering the lasting economic impacts of COVID-19. So, now isn&rsquo;t the time to pat ourselves on the back. It is time to continue investing in efforts that support small businesses so that they can continue to recover and rebuild.
At the Citi Foundation, we remain committed to supporting the resilience of small businesses. Through our <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/foundation/programs/community-finance-innovation-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">Community Finance Innovation Fund</a>, we are supporting Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions to help deliver credit and other asset-building financial services to unbanked and underbanked households and entrepreneurs in low-income communities and communities of color.
*Impact numbers self-reported by grantee organizations
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="/rcs/v1/media/citigpa/akpublic/storage/retrieveMediaFile/649c92c7fbdd7d5369572943.png" alt="small-businesses-covid-19-infographic.png/" width="568" height="500" />

Stepping Up for Small Businesses During COVID-19

Citi Foundation

Announcing its first-ever Global Innovation Challenge to help scale the impact of nonprofits that are developing innovative solutions to improve food security.

Citi Foundation Announces Inaugural Global Innovation Challenge

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