More than $3.4 million is available for a round of grants that will begin taking applications from low-income-designated credit unions May 1, the federal credit union regulator said Wednesday.
The Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF), administered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), will take applications between May 1 and July 1, the agency said. It said this year’s round will provide grants in five categories and one pilot initiative:
- Underserved Outreach (maximum award of $50,000) – Helping credit unions expand access to underserved communities and improve the financial well-being of their members.
- MDI Capacity Building (maximum award of $50,000) – Preserving MDI (minority depository institution) credit unions and increasing their ability to thrive and serve minority populations.
- Consumer Financial Protection (maximum award of $10,000) – Ensuring credit unions have the resources and expertise to protect credit union members and consumers, raise awareness of potential frauds, and facilitate access to fair and affordable financial services.
- Digital Services and Cybersecurity (maximum award of $10,000) – Helping credit unions to modernize information and security systems to better protect themselves and members from cyberattacks.
- Training (maximum award of $5,000) – Strengthening credit unions through succession planning, leadership development, and staff education.
- Impact Through Innovation (maximum award of $100,000) – Providing Phase II funding for this pilot initiative to credit unions that received Phase I grants in 2023.
MDI credit unions are not eligible for this year’s round if they do not have the low-income designation, the agency said; it directed any credit unions with questions about this to the NCUA’s Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion (CURE) at dcamail@ncua.gov. Other questions about CDRLF grants should be directed by email to cureapps@ncua.gov, it said.
Besides having the agency’s low-income designation, the agency said, credit unions seeking grants must also have an active account with the System for Award Management (SAM) and a unique entity identifier number that is given upon registration for that account. Grant applications must be submitted online through the NCUA’s CyberGrants portal.
Full details are available in a Federal Register notice also published Wednesday.