CEI's impact this year: $24M deployed, 120 businesses aided
Courtesy / Coastal Enterprises Inc.
In 2019, nonprofit Coastal Enterprises Inc. has deployed over $24.1 million to 120 businesses.
In 2019, Brunswick-based Coastal Enterprises Inc. deployed over $24.1 million to 120 businesses, mostly in Maine, and contributed to the creation and preservation of 1,900 jobs across industries that spanned sustainable agriculture and food systems, aquaculture and fisheries, renewable energy, manufacturing, downtown revitalization and the arts.
That’s according to a new report on the community development financial institution's investments, small business advisory services and policy advocacy.
“Although the stock market is booming and the unemployment rate is low, there is a drumbeat of evidence that these figures mask the fact that many people and many regions are being left behind, and that increasingly who you are and where you are born shapes the opportunities that you face more than your ingenuity and hard work,” CEI CEO Betsy Biemann said in a news release.
“We believe that when the economy is not working for everyone, it is not working for Maine or for our nation. That’s why our work is more important than ever.”
Financial activity
In all, CEI deployed over $24.1 million in the form of loans, microloans, equity and tax credit-motivated financing. Staff provided business advice to 1,461 individuals in Maine, including 495 entrepreneurs through the CEI Women’s Business Centers, 108 immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs who received advice from CEI’s StartSmart team, and 175 food industry entrepreneurs who received business development resources to help scale their fisheries, aquaculture, agriculture and food systems businesses.
In addition, business advisors at Maine Small Business Development Centers hosted by CEI in Augusta, Bangor, Brunswick, Ellsworth, Waterville and Wiscasset worked with 683 entrepreneurs.
An additional 807 people received home-buying counseling and financial education that helped them purchase homes and avoid foreclosures.
CEI advocated for national and state policies on a range of issues, including workforce training, expansion of access to broadband services, renewable energy, childcare and seed capital for small businesses, sustainable agriculture practices, community reinvestment and consumer financial protection.
Climate change
As part of a long-term effort to help communities and industries adapt to a changing climate, CEI issued a report with the Vermont Energy Investment Corp. and the Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont chapters of the Nature Conservancy. The report identified regional investments needed to transition to a clean energy and more equitable economy.
The report coincided with $2.86 million in new CEI financing in Maine for municipal solar projects in Waterville, Limestone, and two on Mount Desert Island; and solar arrays for family farms in Monmouth and Brunswick.
CEI is one of only two CDFIs in the country committed to using the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials standards to assess the greenhouse gas emissions of its portfolio and to disclose those results in three years.
Small businesses
During this last fiscal year, CEI:
• Made 100 new loans to small businesses for a total of $17.4 million, bringing its loan portfolio to $48 million, the largest loan portfolio by dollars in CEI’s 41-year history.
• Coached 100 portfolio companies on how good jobs strategies can boost company profitability.
• Launched new products to encourage small business growth, including the Sea Farm Loan for aquaculturists.
• Scaled deployment of Wicked Fast loans, closing 36 loans totaling $555,000 for small business owners, earning CEI the Small Business Administration’s Maine Microlender of the Year Award.
Venture capital
CEI subsidiary CEI Ventures closed 13 venture capital investments totaling over $2.5 million, including early and growth stage financing in Culture Fresh, Constant Energy and Dream Local Digital.
CEI Capital Management placed all of its available New Markets Tax Credit allocation in 2018 and is currently managing a portfolio of 20 projects totaling $294.48 million. CEI’s subsidiary, Bright Community Capital, made its first investment of $300,000 in Vermont-based Encore Renewable Energy, and 30 Federal Street Investments deployed nearly $4 million in state historic tax credit financing into the rehabilitation and reuse of 12 historic buildings that are revitalizing Maine’s downtowns.
Since 1977, the CEI family of organizations has invested $1.4 billion in 2,951 businesses and projects.
Last month, CEI announced it would establish an incubator for child-care entrepreneurs, with the help of $400,000 awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The incubator is slated to launch in early 2020.
This month, the nonprofit received a $300,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation’s Diverse Community Capital program to provide financing and business coaching for women and immigrant entrepreneurs in Maine.
Also this month, it received $714,000 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, to provide capital to Maine-based food system businesses and, outside of Maine, to lend in “persistent poverty” counties.
In 2018, CEI’s impact included 2,000 jobs created or preserved across several industries and the deployment of $16.4 million in loans to 86 businesses in Maine, for a total of $89 million in loans disbursed to 104 businesses throughout the United States.
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