2024-02-12T14:30:03-07:00 2023-09-30 990 2022-10-01 710464321 COMMUNITIES UNLIMITED INC COMM 4794432700 3 East Colt Square Drive Fayetteville AR 72703 Ines Polonius CEO 4794432700 2024-02-12 Ines Polonius 999009999 1 1 11 1 AAL2 X 2022 2023-04-26 12:10:37Z Ines Polonius 3 East Colt Square Drive Fayetteville AR 72703 15485400 0 X www.communitiesu.org X 1975 AR Communities Unlimited, Inc. CU connects people and rural communities to solutions. Please see schedule O for our Promise, Our Purpose, Our Approach 7 7 109 0 0 0 9180615 13975194 760836 1224122 18260 263346 -23589 22738 9936122 15485400 142125 120230 0 0 6363332 8429723 0 0 0 2473185 3762524 8978642 12312477 957480 3172923 26843803 36993001 9467227 16443500 17376576 20549501 Communities Unlimited, Inc. CU connects people and rural communities to solutions. Please see Schedule O supplemental information for Part I, line 1 for Our Promise, Our Purpose, Our Approach, Our Place, and Our Organization. 0 0 5250460 0 6333731 CU's Environmental Services Program works with small population community environmental management systems: community drinking water systems; wastewater systems; and solid waste management systems through on-site technical assistance, training, publications, and financing. With a current staff of over 50 highly trained professional technical assistance providers, CU Environmental Services supports efforts to provide access to safe drinking water for everyone and environmentally-responsible waste disposal within an ever-changing regulatory environment in the communities that are provided technical assistance and training. Our technical assistance focuses on building local capacity of governing board members, environmental operators, and other system staff so that they will develop and maintain the capability to adequately manage and operate their environmental management systems. All of CU Environmental Services' technical assistance and training is focused on achieving national environmental system outcomes. As a regional partner of the national Rural Community Assistance Partnership, (RCAP), CU serves as the Southern RCAP partner in providing environmental technical assistance and training throughout a seven-state region of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. Additionally, CU Environmental Services supports other RCAP regional partners in other regions of the country with access to their CDFI community environmental lending. During fiscal year 2023, CU Environmental Services provided onsite assistance to 715 small communities and rural environmental systems. CU's environmental staff experienced a record year in leveraging over $174 million in construction financing to improve community water and wastewater systems. CU Environmental Services staff completed 83 training workshops attended by 1,284 community officials, board members, certified operators, and other environmental management system staff members. CU Environmental Services achieved the following National Environmental Outcomes last year for the following number of communities: 58 Communities: Improved Coordination between Communities (Regionalization Strategies); 108 Communities: Improved Public Health by achieving compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act rules and regulations; 122 Communities: Improved Environmental Health by achieving compliance with Clean Water Act and Pollution Control Act rules and regulations; 40 Communities: Improved Capacity of Community Facilities; 208 Communities: Achieved Financial Sustainability; 182 Communities: Increased Managerial Capacity; 16 Communities: Improved Self-Defined Prosperity; 42 Communities: Achieved Global Information System Mapping Capabilities. 1606186 13230 3929170 In 1992, CU started making loans to water and wastewater systems in rural areas to ensure that residents had clean, healthy drinking water and safe wastewater treatment systems. In 2001 CU was certified as a CDFI. Loans made to Community Environmental Management Systems are used for improvement projects, pre-development financing, purchase of equipment and emergency financing needs. In 2023, CU closed $5,461,646 to 20 water and wastewater systems to improve their water and wastewater systems. These loans included $1,988,019 (36%) loaned in Persistent Poverty Counties. Loans ranged from the small loan needed to meet compliance to larger loans for pre-development work that helped these communities access larger loans and grants. CU made 6 pre-development loans of $2,615,637, leveraging $34,983,732 in federal and state funds. These loans impacted 1,688 household in Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma in communities with poverty rates as high as 23.8%. Pre-development loans are the fastest growing segment in CU water and wastewater loan portfolio. Small business lending was added in 2010 as small businesses were struggling to recover from the 2008 recession and bank lending tightened. Again, CU works to fill the gap in financing with loans from $1,000 to $100,000 to small businesses that do not qualify for traditional financing. Small business loans can be used for working capital, which is one of the biggest gaps in small business financing. Other uses include purchase or repair of equipment and real estate purchase or improvements. CU offers a variety of small business loan products that are designed to grow as the business grows. CU's small business lending is focused on filling gaps in rural places and minority populations. In 2023, CU increased loan production by 14%. Forty-one small businesses received $937,130 in loans, averaging $22,857. This includes 68% to minority owned businesses, 27% in Persistent Poverty Counties, 56% in rural areas, and 83% to women-owned businesses. CU revived the Nuestra Casa loan program that was hugely successful in the early 2000s in the South Texas Colonias, re-launching the home improvement program using the Small Dollar Loan Grant in May 2022 with the hiring of a key local Hispanic lender for the Brownsville office. In 2023, CU provided 154 loans, making a direct impact on the resident' living conditions and often increasing their largest asset value. The program also offers credit counseling and financial incentives to pay on time and improve individual credit scores allowing for improved access to traditional financial products. Through CU's credit counseling efforts, payment monitoring and one on one personal assistance, 76% of the renewal customers have seen an increase in their FICO score, with an average increase of 37 points. 2799815 107000 3257078 Housing, Entrepreneurship, and Community Sustainability: CU follows a holistic, community-centered housing approach with a focus on local capacity building, technical assistance, resource development, and housing fund and lending development. During fiscal year 2023, CU was in the early stages of program planning and resource development. CU increased housing staff capacity for the housing program by hiring a housing counselor to provide housing counseling services in the Arkansas Delta and surrounding region. Filling this role will allow the organization to provide pre-purchase homebuyer education, housing counseling, and post-purchases or loans for home rehabilitation. In addition to increased staff capacity, the CU housing program engaged partners in expanding a volumetric modular housing manufacturing system and initiatives in increase homeownership for Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. CU housing staff have partnered with WE Center, a non-profit housing development and workforce training center, to launch a modular housing manufacturing center in Pine Bluff, AR with plans to manufacture and place homes in the community during the next fiscal year. CU partnered with local organizations in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to identify a pipeline of mortgage-ready home buyers to engage around modular housing manufacturing. During fiscal year 2023, CU Housing engaged the city of Dumas, AR in a comprehensive housing needs assessment and the development of a local housing task force. Through the housing needs assessment, the CU and the housing task force have engaged community members, employers, and city officials to identify, plan for, and later address the issues caused by the aging housing stock, lack of workforce, affordable housing, and housing infrastructure needs. Entrepreneurship - During fiscal year 2023, the Entrepreneurship Team assisted 310 clients one-on-one with 123 clients receiving an average of 52 hours of intensive consulting services. The program training events include an additional 34 client's completing LMS courses and 204 attendees to live small business webinars. In addition to providing its management consulting and training services to small businesses, CU's Entrepreneurship Team focused on: 1: establishing CU's new Arkansas MBDA Business Center; 2: building out additional CU E-Learning Center small business courses that provide foundational learning and supplements CU's one-on-one consulting engagements; and 3: completing the first year of the E-Wealth Health program pilot. The Arkansas MBDA Business Center (led by the Entrepreneurship Team) completed its first year with 90 small business clients. The MBDA is the Minority Business Development Agency, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is the only federal agency solely dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of minority business enterprises. In an effort to deepen its partnership with SBA, CU's Arkansas MBDA Business Center signed a Strategic Memorandum Alliance (SAM) with the Arkansas SBA District Office. CU has begun working more closely with Arkansas ecosystem partners around assisting minority businesses in identifying and securing contracts. Launched in August 2022, the E-Wealth Health Initiative (E=Entrepreneur) that is focused on closing the wealth gap through entrepreneurship completed its one-year program pilot. The E-Wealth Health Initiative consists of monthly webinars and one-on-one management consulting sessions. The business owners are taught how to manage their business to profitability and how to grow business retained earnings that are then used strategically toward increasing the owner's personal net worth, establishing retirement accounts, securing capital or other wealth creation strategies. The initial cohorts of business owners were offered Wealth Accelerator payments as an incentive to establish wealth goals. The outcomes have been amazing! Learn more about the E-Wealth Health Initiative from our staff and some of its first-year cohort participants at https://vimeo.com/XXX-XX-XXXX?share=copy#t=0; https://vimeo.com/XXX-XX-XXXX?share=copy#t=0; https://vimeo.com/XXX-XX-XXXX?share=copy#t=0; https://vimeo.com/XXX-XX-XXXX?share=copy#t=0. As FY 2023 closed, CU's Community Sustainability team's network of partner communities grew to a cumulative 59 communities and 22 counties who have worked toward developing more vibrant, sustainable economies by leveraging local assets for long-term growth. CU recognizes that for communities to achieve real sustainability the approach must be radically resident driven. Residents drive the process; creating the plans, filling gaps and connecting to existing resources to activate the community's power for change. CU's staff facilitates this process and assists with infrastructure management and improvement, community facility development, small business development and access to financing. The team believes that people should have the opportunity to thrive where they live, work, play and worship regardless of the location or population of their community. One of the goals of the CS team is to build a diverse leadership team who are open minded and motivated to initiate change. They provide training to build personal and community capacity that will enable residents to be the problem solvers. As a regional hub they provide WealthWorks training and value chain facilitation along with implementing the principles of Strategic Doing. Assets are recognized through the engagement of community leaders and utilized to build a strategy for economic growth. This strategy directs the long-term execution of work by CS staff side by side in relationship with community. By deploying their E.D.G.E. Capacity Building model, which involves Enlightening - training, Delivering - technical assistance, Guiding - as community conducts tasks, and Empowering - monitoring the community's continued success in their execution of tasks, Community Facilitators purposefully and intentionally go into every community with an exit strategy in mind, realizing that the true benefit of their efforts is building or strengthening the capacity of local governments and non-profits so that when they do complete a project they are no longer needed to ensure that community facilities, local housing, and/or community and economic development will continue to be sustainable. CU leverages each of its programs and identifies partners to bring the resources needed for implementation of the strategies to create lasting change. Community Sustainability helps communities: Evaluate ordinances and policies that are friendly to small businesses. Increase the number of local businesses. Support growth of existing local businesses. Deliver resources and convene partners who have new resources to deploy. Provide access to financing. Evaluate existing community development plans. Work with GIS mapping program to create sustainable resource maps. And, develop broadband strategies and connect to resources for deployment. They accomplish this through: Collaboration with local leadership to provide an assessment of the community's economic opportunities. Environmental technical assistance resources. Small business management consulting. Community facilities resources. Home improvement lending. Local, regional, state and federal convening of stakeholders. 654559 0 1965421 Healthy Foods and various other small programs: CU's service area includes almost half of the nation's persistent poverty counties, and five of the six states where food insecurity is above the U.S. average. We serve where economic discrimination and disparities in access to resources challenge the sustainability of small towns, small businesses, small farms and families in persistently poor rural places. Like access to safe clean drinking water, access to enough food and especially Healthy Food is necessary for children, families and communities to thrive. We know that food insecurity impacts a child's physical and mental development, impacting their future ability to learn and transfer knowledge into work performance that earn a livable wage and builds wealth for them. Food insecurity, compounded by the lack of access to healthy food, is an equity issue in our nation. This is clearly evident in the last 10-years of federal and state data, as well as evidenced by CU's decades of data from our boots-on-ground service in these places. Consider this,Rural households experienced significant increases in food insecurity in 2022 (14.7%) compared to 2021 (10.8). (USDA ERS with DOC, Census & Food Security Supplements from 2021 & 2022). Household with children headed by single women experienced a significant increase in food insecurity in 2022 (18.2%) as compared to 2021 (12.1%). (USDA ERS with DOC, Census & Food Security Supplements from 2021 & 2022). The top 10 counties in the nation with the highest child food insecurity in 2021 (> 36% of all children) are all in CU's service area. (Map the Meal Gap 2023). The growing rate of food insecurity among aging adults is challenging all communities. Arkansas has the highest rate of food insecurity among adults aged 50-59. (Map the Meal Gap 2023). The impacts of structural racism and discrimination, especially in the persistent poverty areas continues to challenge those living in CU's service. (Data from Map the Meal Gap 2023.). Food insecurity among Black/African American individuals is higher than for white individuals in almost every county in the nation. The disparity is as high as 48 percentage points in Cumberland County, TN. Food insecurity for Latino individuals varies by geography and the disparity between people of Latino heritage is as high as 26% in an Arkansas county when compared to individuals that identify as White. For those that identify as White, food insecurity is more concentrated in the rural South with 1-28% of individuals being food insecure. The Appalachian region contains some of the counties with the highest percentage of food insecurity among people that identify as White. Healthy Foods collaborates in the space of the regional food system, with intentional focus on the most marginalized communities, producers and small businesses. Success in Healthy Foods is based on collaboration and a community-centered approach that respects the needs and voices of all members of a community. It also is based on the understanding that trust must be earned, and it is necessary for technical assistance and resources to result in sustainable capacity development. CU has been able to provide technical assistance and access to resources that empowered: connections to new market opportunities for farmers; completion of GAP/GHP certification by small-scale underserved farmers; development and/or expansion of local markets; connections between local medical providers and schools to local producers resulting in increased access to fresh produce; and expanded access to resources to meet transportation, aggregation and storage needs in rural high poverty areas and with small-scale underserved farmers. A couple of examples of current collaborations and projects are highlighted below. USDA's Farm to School program allows CU to empower schools in communities challenged by poverty and racism to access resources and increase the healthy meals served to K-12 children. Local small-scale minority farmers also benefit from this initiative as they are connected with schools that desire to make local purchases and provided the technical assistance to navigate the timing of school meal planning, contracting, etc. CU's Healthy Foods Coordinator serves on the Arkansas Fellowship Steering Committee, Winrock International, to give voice to the opportunities to develop Arkansas regional food systems, connect with minority-women-veteran-other entrepreneurs and producers; and the connection between thriving local economies and access to adequate quantity and quality of food. CU Healthy Foods is the Arkansas partner in the USDA Delta Regional Food Business Center, working in collaboration with the Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc. (MDC/FWOI) and other regional partners. Through this collaboration, CU will lead the distribution of over $2M in grant funding in support of regional food system development, food-related business development and sustainable production of locally grown food, ensuring equitable distribution of this funding and inclusive participation in this opportunity. 654559 0 1965421 10311020 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 157 0 1 109 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 X X Communities Unlimited Inc 4794432700 3 East Colt Square Drive Fayetteville AR 72703 Ines Polonius CEO 40 0 X X 131143 0 20915 Elaine Crutchfield Director of Program Services 40 0 X 115401 0 23841 Thomas Ricks Director of Environmental Services 40 0 X 116141 0 21020 Kimberly Griffey CFO 40 0 X X 109137 0 20274 Bryn Bagwell Director of Loan Fund 40 0 X 106257 0 15480 Deborah Warren Board Member 1 0 X 0 0 0 Donna Kay Yeargan Board member 1 0 X 0 0 0 Salomon Torres Board Member 1 0 X 0 0 0 Maximillan Sprinkle Board Member 1 0 X 0 0 0 Dominique Gomez Board Member 1 0 X 0 0 0 Chris Page Board President 1 0 X 0 0 0 Billy Hix Secretary Treasurer 1 0 X 0 0 0 578079 0 101530 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 9202495 4772699 2500 13975194 Loan Interest, Origination fees 522291 850299 850299 0 0 Fee for Service Contracts - Business Consulting 541618 273518 273518 0 0 Mobile Home Rents 531110 100305 100305 0 0 0 0 0 0 1224122 263346 263346 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22738 22738 0 0 22738 15485400 1510206 0 0 0 0 120230 120230 0 0 0 0 268134 58801 209333 0 0 0 0 0 6534159 5829509 704650 0 351878 291293 60585 0 755609 653667 101942 0 519943 451504 68439 0 0 0 0 0 18366 6518 11848 0 225922 0 225922 0 54575 0 54575 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 473689 320195 153494 0 30865 29995 870 0 954848 749475 205373 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 146231 115726 30505 0 628884 589058 39826 0 0 0 0 0 276581 220178 56403 0 105387 105387 0 0 0 0 0 0 70069 37976 32093 0 107068 76883 30185 0 Organizational Dues 12751 11335 1416 0 Bad Debts 341947 341947 0 0 Loan Records 272610 272610 0 0 42731 28733 13998 0 12312477 10311020 2001457 0 12948241 19030391 0 0 0 0 1425255 2027651 0 0 0 0 11286022 14086236 0 0 31593 96817 1949873 957967 1061975 991906 0 0 90717 760000 0 0 0 0 0 0 26843803 36993001 401565 487664 0 0 3103115 3175027 0 0 -30981 -48295 0 0 1878528 1714104 4115000 11115000 9467227 16443500 X 17376576 20549501 0 0 17376576 20549501 26843803 36993001 X 3172923 0 0 0 0 2 X 0 1 X 1 1 1 X 6392855 7429214 10530532 9180615 13975194 47508410 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6392855 7429214 10530532 9180615 13975194 47508410 0 47508410 38000 21760 10949 18260 263346 352315 0 0 0 0 0 0 -16422 -24137 -37095 -23589 22738 -78505 47782220 11243908 0.99427 0.99926 X Schedule A, Part II, Line 10 miscellaneous income of $22,738. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 17807 0 1 54575 72382 0 Schedule C, Part II-B, Line 1 General meetings with elected representatives to discuss rural issues and needs in our seven state region 0 1 X 0 546000 546000 0 1270347 824441 445906 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 133526 133526 0 991906 15485400 0 0 0 0 0 15485400 0 0 0 15485400 12312475 0 0 0 0 0 12312475 0 2 2 12312477 Schedule D, Part IV, Line 2b Escrow funds held to pay insurance and taxes on homes financed Schedule D, Part XII, Line 4b rounding 1 Scholarships for citizenships or DACA applications 19 13230 0 Delta Owned grants for Small Businesses 5 15000 0 E-Wealth Health grants for small business 10 32000 0 MemShop Rent subsidy 7 60000 0 Schedule I, Part I, Line 2 Grant funds, were monitored through online meetings. Invoices were reviewed for accuracy and validity prior to payment. X X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ines Polonius CEO 131143 0 0 0 0 0 11105 0 9810 0 152058 0 0 0 Bryn Bagwell Director of Loan Fund 106257 0 0 0 0 0 8720 0 6760 0 121737 0 0 0 Thomas Ricks Director of Environmental Services 116141 0 0 0 0 0 9689 0 11331 0 137161 0 0 0 Kimberly Griffey CFO 109137 0 0 0 0 0 9095 0 11179 0 129411 0 0 0 Elaine Crutchfield Director of Program Services 115401 0 0 0 0 0 7245 0 16596 0 139242 0 0 0 Form 990, Part I, Line 1 CU works with people, combining their ingenuity with technology, expertise and capital to unwind generations of inequity and ensure healthy water, healthy food, healthy businesses, healthy communities and healthy lives. CU's Promise: To partner with people working for a better life in their hometown and connect them to solutions for achieving sustainable prosperity. CU's Purpose: Talent is distributed equally across the United States. Opportunity clearly is not. Access to opportunities should not depend on where you live, how much money you have in the bank or what you look like. CU works to create greater access to opportunities for individuals living in places of persistent poverty. CU's Approach: CU takes a holistic approach to community development by combining human connection and ingenuity with technology, expertise and capital to solve problems. CU staff work to blend its services across program areas to meet communities where they are and sustain healthy businesses, healthy communities and healthy lives. CU's Place: CU serves communities in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee & Texas. This service area includes 45% of our nation's persistent poverty counties, where more than 20% of the population has lived in poverty for over 30 years. 47% of people living in persistently poor rural counties are people of color. And, this area is home to rural innovators, small town entrepreneurs and people with a history of working hard from sunrise to sunset to provide for their families. Here people seek opportunities to break through generations of inequity and disinvestment in order to reach prosperity. CU's Organization CU is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation founded in 1975, with over 105 staff in seven states and over $32 million in assets. CU was certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in 2001. As a CDFI, CU expands economic opportunity for small business owners and communities by providing access to capital when traditional financing options are not available.CU works collaboratively to build partnerships that complement its services in order to maximize the benefits to their clients. CU is a founding partner of three national collaboratives. In the 1970s, it helped to found the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), the oldest national nonprofit serving the nation's small communities with environmental services that support access to safe clean drinking water and other critical cornerstones of healthy communities. As one of six regional RCAP partners, CU works in over 600 rural communities each year, and leverages millions of dollars in funding for essential community facilities and infrastructure. In 2011, CU founded the national WealthWorks network, providing solutions that include a 21st-century approach to economic development that builds from local assets, connects to regional markets, and creates wealth that stays local. In 2018, CU co-founded the Partners for Rural Transformation which works to eliminate persistent poverty through capital investments and capacity building in rural communities across the country. While CU is focused on capacity building and lending in places where both are needed the most, it also leverages this field experience to inform national research, policy and advocacy work. In 2021 CU launched its own research work which utilizes its program metrics to generate thought leadership in the community economic development field. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b A copy of the 990 was provided to the Board members on 2/2/24 and reviewed by the CFO with the Board Members in attendance at the 2/9/24 Board Meeting. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c Annually all employees and Board members must review and sign the Conflict of Interest Policy Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15 The Board of Directors review the CEO salary and make recommendations for revisions. For all other staff salaries, comparable data is obtained from a third party consulting agency. The consultant meets with top management to review information and make necessary adjustments. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 Upon written request, documents are available for review at our corporate offices or we will copy and mail any requested documents. Form 990, Part XI, Line 9 rounding CRG Realty 3 East Colt Square Drive Fayetteville AR 72703 Affordable Housing AR 0 0 Communities Unlimited Inc