What a year it has been indeed!
While it feels nearly impossible to condense an entire year into one newsletter, we couldn’t close 2021 without taking a look back at the highlights from this year. Join us in celebrating CIC’s biggest year to date, and we’re just getting started!
A National Leader in Eviction Prevention
Beginning in 2020 and continuing to date, we have been involved in an unprecedented collaborative effort to administer over $40 million in federal funding to prevent eviction throughout all of Pima County. In order to meet this level of need and achieve federal disbursement deadlines, CIC’s staff has tripled in size. We also adapted an online platform that allows our team to process cases seamlessly with 12 other nonprofit organizations and Pima County’s Community Action Agency.
We are proud to share that we have exceeded all federal funding disbursement deadlines outperforming 90% of jurisdictions nationwide!
Launched a first of its kind BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund for Small Business Owners
In our inaugural year of the BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund program, we received 50+ applications, with requests for $430,000+ to help long underserved entrepreneurs of color in Southern Arizona grow their businesses and thrive. With the $100,000 we raised for this round, we supported 16 businesses, proving there was a huge unmet need in this community.
Check out this short video to learn more about this program.
And the fund is growing! We were thrilled to share that we have been selected as one of the five 2022 annual grantee partners by the Women’s Foundation for the State of Arizona and received a generous contribution from the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona! With their support, we will begin accepting applications for our second cohort of businesses in the spring of 2022.
This funding will be critical to our mission’s success and will help us reach our goal of building the fund to $1 million by 2025.
Want to stay in the loop? Sign up to be notified of upcoming opportunities for business owners!
Expanded the Mortgage Credit Certificate program statewide
For 30+ years, the Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) program has been administered by CIC, and its partners, and allows first-time homebuyers to claim up to $2,000 of their annual mortgage interest as a federal tax credit – each year and every year they live in their homes. This means that MCC’s can save homeowners up to $50,000+ over the life of their mortgage!
The CIC has issued 7,000+ certificates to date, saving Arizona homeowners millions, and this year, we expanded the program to new Arizona counties, with hopes offer the program statewide in 2022!
CIC Tucson was named Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion of the Year!
We were honored to be recognized by the selection committee of the Tucson Metro Chamber Copper Cactus Awards as the DPR Construction Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion in the awards’ inaugural year.
While we don’t do this work for the awards, this was a special moment to stop and celebrate everyone who has contributed to making our programs worthy of recognition. Most notably, the committee members that helped to create our BIPOC Community Managed Loan Fund, Blax Friday, and our friends over at Startup Tucson, who have worked alongside us every step of the way to dream bigger in building a more just and equitable economy.
From our team to yours, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and we’ll see you in 2022!
– Danny Knee and the CIC Team
