Program Overview & Objectives

The Community Economic Development Capacity Building Program is a subset of CDFA’s Tax Credit Program that focuses on strengthening organizations in New Hampshire committed to community economic development.  CDFA’s Tax Credit Program was established by New Hampshire RSA 162-L,  to: contribute to the development or redevelopment and economic wellbeing of target areas or target populations, improve the economic development of the state, increase or maintain threatened primary employment, or provide affordable housing opportunities to low and moderate income people. CDFA also seeks to increase the overall number of community economic development projects and advance the capacity of organizations seeking to support community economic development, throughout New Hampshire.

The program’s principal objective is to support communities, cooperatives, and nonprofits in building their capacity to advance community economic development and infrastructure projects that will support the needs of vulnerable community members.

The three  priority areas of the Community Economic Development Capacity Building program are:

1. Increase collaboration across organizations and stakeholders;
2. Resource projects led by and/or directly benefiting vulnerable populations, including organizations with high financial need; or
3. Resource projects in places with a high percentage of vulnerable people, or which are low-wealth, rural or distressed urban communities.

DEFINITIONS

The following are definitions of key program terms and should be used to further clarify the program priorities:

Collaboration: Two or more entities or organizations working together to complete a community economic development project.  Collaborative applications can provide the potential of encouraging the development of effective and collaborative organizations.

Infrastructure: Investments in infrastructure are those that provide resources to support the advancement of a traditional or nontraditional project or initiative that addresses community economic development challenges or opportunities. Traditional infrastructure investments include building, renovating, and improving physical systems or spaces. Nontraditional infrastructure investments include creating new models, programs, or partnerships that improve internal or external practices or systems.

Vulnerable / Target populations: CDFA has continued its commitment to meeting the needs of our communities’ most vulnerable members and supporting their efforts to meaningfully engage in community economic development initiatives.

Based on the findings of the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in New Hampshire report, CDFA is redoubling our efforts to resource projects that are led by and support historically vulnerable community members, who are described in the report as: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); immigrants; LGBTQ; disabled; women and gender non-conforming; rural; youth; and unhoused residents. Given CDFA’s reach and our ability to provide capacity building support to solutions that benefit all Granite Staters, we refer to these historically vulnerable community members as the “target populations”, we also allow applicants to define other target populations with supporting data in their application.

Target areas: Places with a high percentage of vulnerable people, which are low-wealth, rural, or distressed urban communities.

CDFA created a set of 13 Community Progress Indicators that help illustrate socioeconomic issues across the state. CDFA engaged with Policy Map (www.policymap.com) to create a publicly-accessible map-based visualization platform to display the Community Progress Indicators for each city and town in New Hampshire. This powerful tool enables community economic development stakeholders to better understand the issues and trends affecting their local community and region.  The applicant is expected to define their target area in their application for funding with supporting data.

TAX CREDITS

Grants awarded under this program are provided to organizations in the form of tax credit equity, typically over a two-year period.  Businesses with New Hampshire tax liability support awarded projects by purchasing the awardee’s credits, resulting in the nonprofit receiving a donation and the business receiving a 75 percent New Hampshire state tax credit for their contribution. The purchased credit can be applied against the Business Profits Tax, Business Enterprise Tax, or Insurance Premium Tax. The donation may also be eligible for consideration as a charitable contribution for state and federal tax purposes.

CDFA’s founding legislation and foundational guidance for the Tax Credit Program can be found in New Hampshire RSA 162-L.

We understand that selling tax credits can be challenging for organizations serving New Hampshire’s most vulnerable communities – hindered as they often are by geographic impediments and a lack of capacity. In State Fiscal Year 2023, CDFA will offer to sell up to 100% of that year’s tax credit equity, on behalf of the recipient (only for the first year for those grantees receiving two years of credits).  Applicants wishing to sell awarded tax credits, on their own, will have the opportunity to communicate this on the application.

In our continued efforts to improve access, CDFA is also offering applicants resources to hire a grant writer should they need additional capacity, language access, or other technical support to successfully submit an application.