Funders’ Collaborative Awards $35,000 to Arizona Nonprofits

We're excited to share that the Arizona Community Reinvestment Collaborative, a coalition of funders administered by LISC Phoenix, has awarded their 2025 competitive grants. Read about the work of their grantees in the press release below. For more information about the Collaborative and to become a member, visit azcommunityreinvestment.org.

To find out about future grant opportunities from the LISC or the Collaborative, subscribe to updates here.

PHOENIX (Aug. 13, 2025) – The Arizona Community Reinvestment Collaborative announced its 2025 grant awards to six Arizona nonprofit organizations, totaling $35,000 in funding. This year’s grant recipients each provide technical assistance and support to small businesses in low- to moderate-income communities in Maricopa or Pima counties.

A $30,000 grant was awarded to Retail, Arts, Innovation & Livability Community Development Corporation (RAIL CDC) for its business technical assistance program.

This initiative provides personalized, one-on-one support to small business owners, helping them improve their financial systems, operations, HR practices, marketing strategies, and access to capital. These services are paired with RAIL CDC’s Financial Opportunity Center®, which provides financial coaching, credit building and income support services to help low- to moderate-income families stabilize and strengthen their financial well-being. These services lay the groundwork for long-term business success, community wealth-building, and economic empowerment.

“Our mission is rooted in sustainable, community-driven development that uplifts both residents and local businesses,” said Jose Anca, board chair of RAIL CDC. “More than 90% of the businesses they support are microenterprises, reflecting a deep commitment to uplifting the smallest, most vulnerable, hardest-to-reach local businesses.”

In addition, five finalists for the grant received mini-grants of $1,000 each to support their small business assistance programs:

The grant funding pool is made possible by members of the Collaborative. The active members of the Collaborative include Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Bell Bank, BOK Financial, Enterprise Bank & Trust, FineMark National Bank & Trust, JPMorganChase, National Bank of Arizona, PNC Bank, Sunflower Bank, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Western Alliance Bank.

“We are proud to support organizations that are deeply embedded in their communities and committed to building economic opportunity from the ground up,” said Branislav Vujic, chair of ACRC and Community Lending Market Manager at Bankers Trust. “Their work strengthens not just businesses, but the neighborhoods they serve.”

About The Arizona Community Reinvestment Collaborative

The Arizona Community Reinvestment Collaborative is a coalition founded to support initiatives of neighborhood-based organizations that benefit low- to moderate-income residents and small businesses. ACRC brings community members, community groups, non-profits, financial institutions, and government agencies together to collaborate to create greater impact by pooling financial resources, sharing knowledge of nonprofit providers and community needs, and engaging new members to contribute to community development throughout Arizona. ACRC was founded in 2008 in response to the foreclosure crisis. In 2018, the Collaborative relaunched with the administrative support of LISC Phoenix.

###