final report cdfi engagement
TRANSCRIPT
Wilkins 1
Community Development Financial Institution Engagement with the
Hispanic Population in the Lehigh Valley
By Kendall Wilkins
ECO 371
15 May 2016
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Introduction
The Rising Tide Community Loan Fund, located in Bethlehem, PA, is a 501 (c) (3)
Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that exists “to meet a need in the
community for accessible financing options to business owners whose risk factors make it
difficult to obtain funds from traditional lenders.” This organization serves prospective, start-up,
and established businesses in five Lehigh Valley counties by providing a full range of one-to-one
business counseling services and microloans to business owners where resources and
opportunities for growth are limited (Rising Tide).
In recent years, The Rising Tide’s client base has reflected the demographic distribution
of the Lehigh Valley in all but one area; though lending has been proportional among white and
African-American borrowers, The Rising Tide has been unable to attract Hispanic clients to their
programs. Considering that Hispanics make up twenty percent of the population in the Lehigh
Valley, it is important to understand if they are being underserved and how they could be
better served by The Rising Tide Community Loan Fund and organizations like it (Landauer).
Hispanics in the United States use
financial services differently than the
general population, and research shows
that small business owners in the Hispanic community are less likely to use formal financial
services than other demographic groups. The Rising Tide can draw from practices used by CDFIs
both in Pennsylvania and across the country to better serve the Hispanic community in the
Lehigh Valley.
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Hispanic Americans & Financial Services
The first step in investigating The Rising Tide’s lack of engagement with the Hispanic
community is understanding how Hispanics use financial services overall. In the United States
the Hispanic population numbered fifty-five million in 2014, and Hispanics are the fastest
growing population group in the country, expected to grow 167% between 2010 and 2050
(“The Hispanic American Financial Experience”). In general, the Hispanic community is young
and family-oriented, and their financial needs are shaped by strong multigenerational
relationships, cultural attitudes surrounding debt, and lack of trust in and access to financial
service providers. These factors impact the needs of Hispanic business owners and their use of
financial services in several ways.
In the U.S. Hispanic households have a median income of $40,963 and make up 28
percent of impoverished households in the U.S. The financial condition of Hispanics is impacted
by the cultural norm of a close-knit family structure; over 67 percent of Hispanics surveyed in
2013 supported at least one other person, including children, parents, and extended family
both within the U.S. and abroad. 42 percent of
Hispanics born outside of the U.S. send remittances
averaging six-hundred dollars a year to support family
living in Latin America. On the surface, the data would
point to lower rates of saving among Hispanics
(“Hispanic”). However, if “savings” was defined as
“deferred consumption” and included remittances and
Total Assets (in Thousands)
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care for dependents, the Hispanic population saves differently than the general population, but
at a similar rate (Kamasaki 3).
Another theme affecting the use of financial services among Hispanics is a deep cultural
aversion to personal debt. Over sixty percent of Hispanics believe there is no such thing as
“good debt,” but the majority also believe that it is acceptable to use credit for big purchases
like buying a home, starting a business, and going to college (“Hispanic”). This data reveals that,
in the Hispanic community, the necessary reality of personal debt is juxtaposed with a negative
cultural stigma surrounding indebtedness. Congruently, Hispanic net worth is well below that of
the general population. Hispanic households with an annual income of $25,000 or more hold an
average of $33,000 in total financial assets compared to an average of $97,000 in the general
population. This data reveals that
Hispanics are using less financial
services of all kinds, including
both savings and credit. The
Hispanic population is generally more risk adverse than other Americans, and they seek to save
more for short-term goals like reducing debt, purchasing a home, or creating an emergency
savings account. These tendencies, coupled with the fact that Hispanics are less aware of how
“good debt” can be used to achieve long-term financial goals, reveal a need for trustworthy
financial advising (Kamasaki 4).
Part of the reason that the lack of understanding of “good debt” exists is the lack of
access to and trust of financial service providers and advisors within the Hispanic community.
Hispanics rank family and friends as the most important sources of information for financial
“THIS DATA REVEALS THAT, IN THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY, THE NECESSARY REALITY OF PERSONAL DEBT IS JUXTAPOSED WITH A NEGATIVE CULTURAL STIGMA SURROUNDING INDEBTEDNESS.”
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decision-making and professional financial advisors as the least important. Many would assume
that language is a barrier in Hispanic access to professional financial advising; however, only
seven percent of Hispanics stated language as a key component in seeking financial advice. The
lack of use of formal financial service advisors (banks, credit unions, financial advisors) is
instead a result of lack of trust, lack of understanding of financial products, and a lack of
knowledge of where to go for sound financial information (“Hispanic”). This data reveals an
opportunity for financial service providers to meet the needs of the Hispanic community, and
Hispanics have a strong desire for financial
advisors that are a part of their local
communities. Hispanics “are half as likely to
be contacted by financial advisors”
compared to the general population, but
they are just as likely as the general
population to use financial advising services
when contacted (“Hispanic”).
This data reveals several unique characteristics about the Hispanic community in the
United States that are important for financial service providers to be aware of when serving this
population. First, an understanding of cultural beliefs and practices surrounding debt in the
Hispanic community is especially important for organizations like The Rising Tide, which offers
affordable credit products to business-owners and entrepreneurs. This aversion to debt within
the Hispanic community is often rooted in a lack of understanding of how to use credit to
achieve financial goals and lack of trust in financial service providers. It would be essential for
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any CDFI trying to attract Hispanic clients to gain the trust of this community and be able to
communicate effectively about the usefulness of financial products like business loans.
Hispanic-Owned Businesses in the Lehigh Valley
The Hispanic population in the Lehigh Valley grew at a rate of twelve percent between
2012 and 2015, and today make up one-fifth of the total population (Landauer). Hispanic-
owned businesses in the United States numbered over four million in 2015, and revenues for
these businesses reached $660 billion in the same year (Rosenberg). In the Lehigh Valley,
Hispanic-owned businesses reflect the profile of American businesses in general—“most are
small with annual revenues under $200,000 and employ a handful of employees” (Parker 9).
The Center for Community and Organizational Research at Penn State Lehigh Valley conducted
a study in 2008 that examined Hispanic business owners and professionals in the region,
exploring several key trends of small business ownership in this community. It presents several
conclusions that are valuable to community development financial institutions in the Lehigh
Valley that aim to serve this population well.
Hispanics business ownership in the Lehigh Valley exists in a wide range of industries,
including manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, construction, retail, business services,
and food services. As of 2008, seventy-five percent of Hispanic-owned businesses in the Valley
were owned by men, and the majority were structured as a sole proprietorship (Parker 12).
Downtown Allentown and South Bethlehem had the highest percentage of Hispanic business
owners, who accounted for thirty percent of all small business owners in these two areas.
Southside Bethlehem and downtown Allentown also have a high percentage of Hispanic
residents, who are disproportionally affected by high poverty rates, crime, and failing schools in
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their neighborhoods. Urban revitalization efforts on the Southside and downtown Allentown
have positively impacted Hispanic business owners, who in turn often give back to their
communities both financially and by volunteering their time (Parker 11).
Most Hispanic-owned businesses in the Lehigh Valley surveyed in this study got their
start between 1998 and 2008, and the median annual business revenue ranged between
$50,000 to $100,000. This data is gendered—thirty-seven percent of Hispanic men reported
revenues over $200,000, while only twenty-five percent of Hispanic women reported the same
amount (Parker 13). Hispanics in the Lehigh Valley choose small business ownership for a
variety of reasons, but the majority reported that they are
in business because it provides them “the best means for
achieving their goals in the U.S. economy.” These goals are
centered on achieving a middle class standard of living
and providing educational opportunities for their children
(Parker 15).
This study presents a useful picture of Hispanic business owners’ past capital
expenditures and their plans for future expenditures. Sixty-
seven percent of Hispanic-owned businesses in the Lehigh
Valley “made capital expenditures to improve their
businesses” between the years 2004 to 2008, with a median
amount of $40,000 (Parker 17). When this study was
published, almost three-quarters of Hispanic business
owners planned to make capital expenditures in the next
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five years (2008 to 2013), with a median planned expenditure of $25,000 and a mean
expenditure of $159,000. This data, like that of business revenue, is also gendered—seventy
percent of Hispanic men made capital investments in the past five years compared to sixty
percent of Hispanic women, and seventy-five percent of men planned to make capital
expenditures in the next five years, compared to sixty-two percent of women (Parker 18). More
than ninety percent of these capital expenditures were spent in the Lehigh Valley.
In reference to their plans for future capital expenditures, the majority of Hispanic
business owners reported that they would need to borrow money to accomplish these goals.
Most reported knowing how to go about borrowing money, though a lesser amount of female
business owners reported knowing how to navigate borrowing money than men (Parker 19). In
starting their existing businesses, most Hispanics used a combination of both loans and savings;
fifty percent relied on loans, and
seventy percent used savings.
These loans came from a variety
of sources, with only twenty-five
percent using loans from a formal
source (a bank or other financial institution). Other sources included personal loans to business
credit cards, friends and family, home equity loans, and small business administration loans.
Hispanic women used their networks of family and friends for loans at a much greater
rate than Hispanic men—forty-seven percent of women borrowed money from friends and
family compared to twenty percent of men. This study also found that the demand for formal
lending services among Hispanics in the Lehigh Valley would increase. Sixty-seven percent of
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business owners planned to rely on banks for future capital expenditures, compared to twenty-
five percent who used formal financial institutions for start-up funding. Hispanics also planned
to decrease their reliance on credit cards and social networks for sources of funding in the
future (Parker 21).
The data reveals that Hispanic business owners have a generally positive relationship
with formal financial institutions in the Lehigh Valley. About half of the business owners
surveyed had applied for a bank loan between 2004 and 2008, and seventy-one percent were
approved. Those who were rejected by banks reported “objective factors (rather than personal
ones) such as bad credit history as reasons for being rejected” (Parker 22). Again, there is a
significant difference between the experience of Hispanic men and Hispanic women when it
comes to formal lending. Less than a quarter of Hispanic female
business owners have applied for a loan in the past five years,
compared to fifty-five percent of Hispanic males. Of the women
who did apply for a loan, only half were accepted; in contrast,
nearly three-quarters of Hispanic men who applied for bank loans
were accepted (Parker 22).
Hispanic business owners are fairly well connected in the Lehigh Valley, with eighty
percent reporting access to networking opportunities with both Hispanic and non-Hispanic
business owners. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the Lehigh Valley is one of the
avenues that exist for networking, and it includes both professionals and small business owners
from many industries across the region. The Hispanic Chamber counts over three-hundred
businesses as members, many of whom attend networking events and business workshops that
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connect them to other business owners in the Lehigh Valley (Cartageña). The Chamber is
currently working to expand its membership to microenterprises like neighborhood bodegas
and mechanic shops through door-to-door marketing efforts in downtown Allentown.
Several prominent members of the Hispanic Chamber emphasize the value of
relationship that is unique among Hispanic business owners and believe that relationship and
business within the Hispanic culture are intricately connected. Tony Ortiz, a member of the
Hispanic Chamber and producer of Nuestro Valle, a public television program in the Lehigh
Valley, emphasized trust as a key factor when operating in the Hispanic business community.
“First, you sit down and eat a meal. Once I (the business owner) know who you are, about your
family and your life, only then will I feel comfortable doing business with you” (Ortiz). Samantha
Cartageña, the coordinator for the Hispanic Chamber, explains it similarly—“Hispanics are
passionate people, and their businesses are their life’s work. They want to know that the
people they do business with are trustworthy,” and in Hispanic culture, that means knowing
their family, their work, where they go to church, etc.
In Spanish, there are two verbs used for the English verb to know. The verb saber is used
in the context of knowing facts, information, and data. The verb conocer is used in the context
of knowing a person or place through relationship that reveals a familiarity and understanding
beyond basic information. Hispanic business culture operates on the principle of conocimiento;
personal relationship, familiarity, and understanding are the foundation of strong business
relationship. This cultural principle is vital for any service provider to understand if they wish to
make connections in the Hispanic business community.
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Latina Entrepreneurs: A Growth Opportunity
The data from Penn State’s 2008 study on the Hispanic business community reveals
important differences between men and women who own small businesses in the Lehigh
Valley. The gendered differences of this data echo much of the literature that exists on female
entrepreneurship in the United States. In the Lehigh Valley, businesses owned by Hispanic
women are more likely to report lower revenues, less likely to have made recent capital
expenditures, and less likely to use formal financial services to finance their businesses.
Developing strategies to empower female entrepreneurs, specifically Hispanic females, to use
formal services like CDFIs could have an important impact on the families and communities of
Hispanic women in the Lehigh Valley.
Across the United States, Hispanic female entrepreneurs are generally less experienced
and have more issues with financial management in their businesses than Hispanic men. They
are less likely to be married, and they struggle more with balancing
their work and home life than do men when it comes to running a
small business (Eastlick). Smaller and more informal networks of
friends and family are the largest source of business advice for the
majority of Hispanic women, so tapping into this social network could
be an important component to CDFI success within the Hispanics
community (Eastlick). Research suggests that mentoring programs and
workshops that focus on capital management could provide ways to remedy the disparities that
Hispanic female business owners face when it comes to networking and gathering information
about their business.
*in the Lehigh Valley
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These kinds of workshops are already happening in the Lehigh Valley. Sonja Vazquez,
principal of Donegan Elementary School on the Southside of Bethlehem, has organized several
job training workshops for the parents of its students in recent months. Connecting with
initiatives like this, in addition to partnering with local churches, the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce, and other community development organizations in the Lehigh Valley to develop
workshops that are geared toward entrepreneurs would make important information more
accessible to those in the Hispanic community. Providing business education resources through
trusted sources like churches and Hispanic community organizations appears to be an
important component to the success of such programs.
Hispanic Americans & CDFIs in the United States
There are several community development financial institutions within the microfinance
industry in the United States that are successfully lending to Hispanic entrepreneurs and
business owners. Grameen America, Accion USA, Community First Fund, and FINANTA, though
distinct in structure and practice, have successfully attracted high numbers of Hispanic
borrowers to their lending programs.
Grameen America is the United States division of Grameen Bank, which was founded by
Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh during the 1970s. Grameen America got its start in New York
City in 2008, and the organization now has locations in eleven U.S. cities. Grameen’s lending
structure aims to serve “the poorest of the poor;” they provide unsecured loans in amounts up
to two-thousand dollars to women, all of whom live under the poverty line and ninety percent
of whom are Latina, to use for starting and growing a microenterprise in their community
(Klien). Grameen America, like its parent organization Grameen Bank, lends only to women,
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who are less likely to access formal financial services no matter where they live. More than half
of people living under the poverty line in the U.S. are women, and poverty rates are highest for
families headed by women, especially Hispanic women. Research has found that American
women are just as likely as women in poorer countries to put their family’s needs ahead of their
own” (Skibola).
Grameen’s lending structure in the United States is similar to the structure they use
throughout the rest of the world. Women who want to borrow from Grameen organize
themselves into groups of five, and each woman in the group receive an initial loan of $1500.
The group is not formally liable for each other’s loans, but Grameen will not lend additional
money to a group that has previously defaulted. These loans are designed to help women
launch microenterprises in their communities, and Grameen reports repayment rates upwards
of ninety-eight percent. In addition to microenterprise lending, Grameen provides non-
predatory access to credit for things like “paying off higher-priced debt, accessing more
affordable sources of consumer financing, or building credit” (Klein). As of 2015, Grameen
America has served over 64,000 clients in eleven U.S. cities and invested $381 million in serving
underbanked Americans (“Grameen America’s Impact”).
Accion USA is another CDFI that has had success within the Hispanic community across
the U.S. Accion began in 1991 and its member organizations have lent $400 million to more
than 50,000 clients over the past 25 years. The majority of their borrowers are women, and the
client base in Southern U.S. has a Hispanic majority. Accion is distinct from Grameen in that it
underwrites “larger business loans on a number of factors: the character and credit of the
borrower, the cash flow of the business, and in some cases, available collateral. The goal of
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Accion’s larger loan program is to build businesses that can provide higher incomes to families
and provide jobs for the owners and others.” In 2012, Accion USA’s average loan size was
$14,000. As of 2012, microlending has helped increase clients’ household income by a median
of twenty-four percent, and the businesses supported create an average of three jobs (Klein).
Accion Texas, a subsidiary of Accion USA, has had marked success along the Texas-
Mexico border, lending over seventeen million dollars between 2010 and 2015 (Nivin). Ninety-
three percent of their borrowers are Hispanic, and many of them are immigrants. The
increasing immigrant population and the high poverty rates along the Texas-Mexico border left
many households without access to financial institutions and suffering from high
unemployment rates. Accion’s microlending programs have become popular in the border
region due to several reasons. First, many low-income immigrants lack proper documentation,
which fuels an informal sector where cash-based microenterprises thrive. Second, “the
ethnically concentrated community” of Hispanics in the border region “carves out niche
markets for ethnic goods” that many microentrepreneurs sell. Finally, microenterprises are
proving to be an important tool “to increase family income, gain control over finances, and
reduce dependence on social support programs” among Hispanic families (Assanie 7).
In the case of Grameen USA and Accion USA, CDFIs can draw an important conclusion.
Immigrant communities around the country are an important source of business for both of
these organizations, and they have had significant success when working with these
populations. The Lehigh Valley has experienced an increase in the number of immigrants who
live here, adding over 12,000 residents from outside U.S. borders in the past five years (Krauss).
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Increasing access to financial services and financial literacy programs among immigrants in the
Lehigh Valley could open doors for microentrepreneurs to participate in CDFI programs.
Grameen and Accion may be power players in the U.S. microfinance industry, but the
majority of CDFIs are much smaller with loan portfolios averaging three million dollars per year
(Walker 386). Small, local CDFIs in Eastern Pennsylvania are doing some interesting things to
connect with the Hispanic community in the region; Community First Fund and FINANTA are
just two who stand out.
Community First Fund (CFF) is a community development financial institution that
operates in thirteen counties throughout Central Pennsylvania. Founded in 1992, Community
First provides loans ranging $2000-$2 million in microloans, small business loans, and economic
development loans in the region. Over the past five years CFF has hired Spanish-speaking loan
officers, who now account for half of their staff. Their offices are located in the downtowns of
Allentown, Lancaster, and Harrisburg, in neighborhoods with a high percentage of low-income
and minority residents. After intentionally hiring bilingual employees from the majority-
Hispanic neighborhoods in which Community First was operating, they saw an increase in
Hispanic borrowers in places like downtown Lancaster and Reading (Buerger). Community First
partners with the Small Business Development Center at Kutztown University to provide sound
business consulting services to its clients. These services are offered in both English and
Spanish, which is attractive to the Spanish-speaking population in the Reading area.
FINANTA is a CDFI founded in 1996 that operates within the city of Philadelphia, and it
has lent over ten million dollars in the past twenty years. They offer several different kinds of
credit products designed for small business owners, first-time home buyers, and
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microentreprenuers. FINANTA was founded with the goal of serving the diverse communities of
Philadelphia, and a large percentage of their client base is of Hispanic descent. Like Community
First Fund, FINANTA has many bilingual staff who are able to work with clients in both Spanish
and English to provide information on their services. They do not, however claim this to be the
draw for the majority of their Hispanic clients. Instead, FINANTA points to the importance of
relationship and reputation that they have built within this community in Philadelphia. Their
greatest tool for marketing in Philly has been word-of-mouth, according to a loan officer.
FINANTA has built such a strong reputation as an ally in the Hispanic community because of its
flexibility. Many of the clients that FINANTA serves work outside of the traditional financial
system, lacking documentation, credit scores, and business records. Rather than turn these
clients away, FINANTA takes time to work with people who are unable to provide traditional
verifications of creditworthiness and business assets, using utility bills, manual records, and
other tools to perform due diligence (Standifer).
Each of the aforementioned CDFIs have several things in common in their work reaching
the Hispanic community in the United States. First, each has Spanish-speaking staff that is able
to serve a client base whose first language is not English, making these borrowers feel more
comfortable with the products they are using. Second, each of these organizations employs
various kinds of financial products, including savings accounts, ROSCAs, business consulting
services, small business loans, and economic development loans. This variety of products allows
them to meet the needs of a client base with different needs. Finally, each of these
organizations are heavily involved in the communities that they are trying to reach. Loan
officers come from and live in the communities that their organizations are trying to reach, and
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they often rely on borrowers to share information about their products with their social
networks.
Conclusion
The Rising Tide and CDFIs like it exist to provide services to people who have historically
been excluded from the financial system. A key question that community development
organizations must continue to ask is, “Who’s not here?” In the case of The Rising Tide, the
answer to that question is the Hispanic community. Hispanics make up twenty percent of the
population in the Lehigh Valley, and they have several unique circumstances that make
engagement among this community more nuanced than other groups of people. A cultural
stigma surrounding indebtedness, a lack of understanding of the financial system, and a lack of
trust in financial service providers are some of the main barriers that Hispanics face in engaging
with financial institutions. There is an increasing demand for credit products among small
business owners in the Hispanic community of the Lehigh Valley, but there is a lack of use of
formal financial services, especially among Hispanic women. CDFIs in the United States who
have had success in engaging the Hispanic community tend to employ Spanish-speaking staff
and offer a wide range of credit and savings products. The Rising Tide has a smaller scale than
the organizations mentioned in this research, but it can use these examples to cast a vision for
the future of its programs. Building a strong relationship between The Rising Tide and the
Hispanic community in the Lehigh Valley will create a bright future for both.
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Works Cited
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