The Raza Development Fund (RDF) will receive $6 million from JP Morgan Chase Foundation to invest in Valley-wide community development initiative "Adelante En Familia" with the goal of "investing capital in organizations to strengthen families in Latino and underserved communities of South Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa."

The JP Morgan Chase Foundation's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Collaboratives program is a $33 million program to fund CDFIs across the US to "build capacity, foster collaboration and growth among CDFIs and enable them to serve more people and small businesses in low and moderate-income communities."

 "Bringing Latinos into the practice of engaging financial institutions to create savings, make purchases and manage their personal finances will be of huge benefit not just to their long-term success, but to the nation's short- and long-term economic growth and stability," said Janet Murguia, President and CEO of National Council of La Raza in a statement, for whom RDF is a support corporation and an important lending partner for NCLR's affiliate organizations.

La Raza states that the overall mission of "Adelante En Familia" is "to plan, promote, and facilitate development of sustainable communities connected to rail and transit that comply with Transit Oriented Development (TOD) success standards for all income levels through work with public and private partners. Areas of focus will be entrepreneurship and small business development, housing, healthcare, and education in the Phoenix Metro Area along the Light Rail, with a special focus on South Phoenix."

MariSol Federal Credit Union, Arizona MultiBank Corporation, and Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation will receive funds from the RDF intended for use in the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa and deploy capital as loans for small businesses, mortgages, and consumer products.

The RDF is not the only organization receiving funds from this program. On Thursday, a collaborative of four CDFI organizations announced the receipt of a $7 million grant.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Collaborative includes the Community Reinvestment Fund, USA, (CRF) the National Development Council (NDC), CEI and the Calvert Foundation. This cooperative will use the funds "to lend to small businesses in select areas including Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Detroit, Seattle, Buffalo and the New York City Metro area."

"By joining forces we will share technology platforms, back-office lending capabilities and market strategies to drive more capital to small businesses," said Frank Altman, President and CEO of CRF in a statement. "This unique partnership is an opportunity for all of our organizations to realize even more economies of scale in our targeted areas."