THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUND

Business advisory program: cedf provides a business advisor (ba) to each of our loan recipients for the life of their loan(s) at no charge to them, just prior to loan origination. Ba's are full-time cedf employees and each advisor has owned and operated a successful small business before joining cedf. This equips them with expert technical knowledge and the willingness to provide attentive, understanding and emotional support to those facing difficult circumstances. Ba's serve our borrowers as coaches and relationship managers to help foster business growth and reduce risk of business closure. They offer guidance on best practices in management, marketing, finance and operations; help investigate, diagnose or research business challenges and opportunities in order to identify paths to improved results; and coach on matters of leadership, accountability, action planning, idea generation, motivation, and management of the emotional components of business ownership. Cedf's business advisors provided 5,470 service hours to 193 clients with 239 loans across ct's 169 towns/cities in 2024 and supported the creation and retention of 1,092 jobs.