Continued Expansion of Native CDFI Support for Native Agri/Aqua Business Growth

Northern Shores Community Development, Inc. (NSCDI) is a certified CDFI with a mission to assist Native American entreprenuers in Michigan with a suite of services that include business training, technical assistance, support for access to capital, and agricultural education, to foster economic development for Tribal communities throughout Michigan. Their office is located in Petoskey. Michigan in the Little Traverse Bay Band service area. After a recent expansion NSCDI is now able to provide their services to Tribal citizens and descendants from all twelve of the Tribal Nations in Michigan in and outside Treaty lands. The organization has a respectable history with the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF) having successfully administered grants in multiple funding cycles. Citizens of all Nations are currently experiencing a critical need for expanding their access to a capital. Some of the barriers faced by Tribal members in the service area include detrimental credit scores, lack of credit history, lack of usable collateral, and what the CDFI describes as the “legacy effects of economic depression.” The project is entitled Continued Expansion of Native CDFI Support for Native Agri/Aqua Business Growth and is scheduled to be completed in 24 months. Project objectives include: a.) Continuous engagement through focused relationships, scholarships to expand learning opportunities, focused training and networking; b.) Providing debt restructuring through refinancing via low-interest loans for credit rebuilding; and c.) providing re-grants for risk management business products. With these objectives in mind NSCDI will provide working capital to clients willing to participate in credit counseling and business training shared through workshops in topics such as accounting principles, business plan development and structuring. Aligning with NAAF’s mission to increase access to capital, this is a grantee that has experience getting money out the door to producers. Thus far NSCDI has provided $650,000 in loans to purchase land, equipment, seeds, and other supplies. With NAAF funding more than $84,000 in grants have been made to Native farmers, fishers, and producers of value-added products. Applying a model that expands their organizational notion of agriculturalist to elevate aqua-culturalists and to purposefully include harvesters and gatherers and to focus on risk management makes this approach both innovative and unique. The organization is seeking to make an impact on up to 124 farmers, ranchers, fishers, harvesters, and gatherers from the twelve Tribal Nations in Michigan.