The Citi Foundation has announced investments totaling $25 million in support of fifty nonprofits across the country providing technical assistance to minority-owned businesses as they navigate the continued economic impacts of COVID-19.

The foundation awarded unrestricted grants of $500,000 each to help organizations scale their work and support the needs and goals of Black-owned small businesses and communities of color. Recipients include Far South CDC, which works to rehabilitate communities through program services and commercial and residential real estate developments in the Chicago area; New York-based Chhaya Community Development Corporation, which provides essential services in multiple languages to businesses serving Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities; and La Cocina in San Francisco, which supports women and food entrepreneurs of color.

Additional recipients include All Our Kin, a national organization with direct services in Connecticut and New York, which trains, supports, and sustains family childcare educators; Start Small Think Big, which works to assist historically marginalized, predominantly BIPOC and low-to-moderate-income entrepreneurs by providing pro bono legal, financial, and marketing services; and the Lakota Funds, which works to promote economic sustainability on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota by offering business loans, technical assistance, and wealth-building education to Native small businesses.

"While their innovative approaches are unique to the communities they serve, all fifty of these organizations are trusted pillars acutely aware of the challenges their clients face," wrote Brandee McHale, head of Citi Community Investing and Development and president of the Citi Foundation in a blog post. "They are also purveyors of hope and support for many. By providing these change agents the flexible support they need to further their work, the Citi Foundation is helping to empower the recovery and rebuilding of stronger and more equitable communities across the U.S."

For a complete list of awarded recipients, see the Citi Foundation website.