Coastal Enterprises distributed $43M to mostly Maine businesses
Photo / Tim Greenway
Betsy Biemann, CEO, and Keith Bisson, president, of CEI
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Coastal Enterprises Inc., a Brunswick-based community development financial institution, said it deployed more than $43.3 million in its last fiscal year to businesses, mostly in Maine, in the form of loans, microloans, equity and tax credit-motivated financing.
The lending and investment activity contributed to the creation and preservation of at least 875 jobs, according to the nonprofit’s 2022 economic impact report, released this week.
The report looks at CEI’s combined economic development tools — business financing and advice, personal financial coaching and policy advocacy — and their effect on local communities.
“Every day, CEI and our peer community development financial institutions across the country use our understanding of the local business landscape coupled with community connections and financial resources to help entrepreneurial people bring their ideas to life — creating good jobs and increasing personal financial agency along the way,” CEO Betsy Biemann said in a news release.
The nonprofit provides business financing and advice, financial coaching and policy advocacy.
In its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022, the CEI family of organizations provided one-on-one business advice or training to 3,132 people in Maine and placed $43.3 million in businesses in Maine and nationally to support the creation of good jobs and expand diverse business ownership among women, entrepreneurs of color, rural residents and in communities with household incomes below the statewide average.
CEI partnered with 91 businesses in Maine and New England to increase job quality and has been tapped by two national foundations to share its Good Jobs practices nationally.
CEI said it is also addressing climate change by calculating the carbon footprint of its loan portfolio, funding sustainable businesses and renewable energy, and increasing environmental resilience in Maine's food system through training and investment.
Record loans
The parent nonprofit, CEI, made a record 101 new loans and four equity investments, totaling over $26 million, to 99 small businesses and projects. Fifty-four percent of small business loans were made to women-owned businesses, and 16% were to immigrants and/or entrepreneurs of color.
For those without significant savings, or friends and family who can invest, or a high credit score, or high-worth collateral it can be difficult to obtain even a small loan. These factors are frequently compounded by race, gender, immigration status or geography. CEI’s loans enabled entrepreneurs to start or grow their business, supporting the potential to shrink the wealth gap and move towards a more equitable economy.
Fostering equity
To enable more equitable access to capital, CEI launched a program to better serve borrowers with limited assets, approved over 40 “Wicked Fast” microloans and helped 32 people improve their credit scores. The improved credit scores helped applicants secure $534,000 in CEI loans.
CEI staff members provided one-on-one business advice or training to 3,132 people in Maine, including 1,596 women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer and non-binary individuals through the CEI Women’s Business Centers, 72 immigrants and refugees through CEI’s StartSmart program, 72 fisheries and aquaculture industry entrepreneurs and 1,607 entrepreneurs through Maine Small Business Development Centers hosted by CEI across Maine.
To help Mainers build financial assets and acumen, CEI provided an additional 1,069 people with homeownership counseling and financial education that helped them purchase homes, avoid foreclosures and build their savings.
Job quality
CEI’s Workforce Solutions team partnered with loan officers to assess the nature of jobs being created, and with small business owners to identify steps to improve job quality, such as increased starting wages to reduce turnover and ways to support employees' health care costs.
CEI staff advised 91 companies on good jobs practices and was recognized for its leadership in job quality improvement strategies with grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services and two national foundations.
CEI subsidiary CEI Ventures’ Good Jobs Fund raised $21.4 million from 46 investors to invest in businesses that demonstrate a commitment to putting their people first and deliver outstanding financial results. During the fiscal year, CEI Ventures completed 11 equity investments totaling $3.7 million. In an industry where only 2% of venture-funding goes to female entrepreneurs, 80% of CEI Ventures’ new investments went to companies that were founded or co-founded by women.
Climate resilience
CEI calculated and disclosed the carbon impact of its loan portfolio. It also financed environmentally sustainable technologies like solar and tidal energy generation and supported resilience-building along Maine’s coast through investments to keep the working waterfront accessible, strengthen out-of-state distribution channels and train aspiring aquaculturists in tested growing techniques.
Twenty-two percent of loans went to businesses that have environmentally sustainable products or services as their core business activity, and 42% of loans went to businesses with carbon-reducing features, such as increased energy efficiency or pollution/waste reduction.
Structural changes
Beyond helping people and businesses one-by-one, CEI aimed to make broader structural changes by advocating for state and federal policies to expand access to broadband services, renewable energy, child care and seed capital for small businesses. That included testifying on 30 separate bills before the 130th Maine state legislature and serving on the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Tribal Populations.
CEI helped the state channel American Rescue Plan Act grant funds to Maine’s farms, food processing and child care infrastructure, and to help homeowners stay in their homes.
National impact
CEI subsidiaries extended the organization’s impact in Maine and across the U.S.
- 30 Federal Street Investments, CEI’s state historic tax credit financing subsidiary, invested $7.7 million in seven new historic redevelopment projects, including projects in Bangor, Fairfield, Bath, Portland and Biddeford. Six of the seven projects include affordable housing (157 units); two of the seven focused on affordable apartments for elders (70 units).
- CEI-Boulos Capital Management placed $1.1 million in Opportunity Zone equity investments in a zero-energy historic redevelopment in Baltimore’s Black Arts District and closed a new $10 million fund to invest in upstate New York. The company also celebrated multiple milestones at its portfolio investments, including the opening of a grocery store in Sharswood, the first grocery store to operate in the North Philadelphia neighborhood in 50 years.
- CEI Capital is managing a portfolio of $135 million in New Markets Tax Credit investments in seven companies in rural and gateway cities communities across the country and a portfolio of $1.5 million in one Maine New Market Capital Investment Program project within the state. It recently received a new $55 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits to invest in rural communities across the country.
Since CEI’s founding in 1977, the CEI family of organizations has invested $1.53 billion in 3,222 businesses and projects that are changing Maine’s employment landscape and creating positive economic ripple effects in rural regions throughout the U.S.
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