About MoFi

Mission

MoFi provides financing and consulting that transforms lives and communities.

What We Do

MoFi is primarily a small business lender, providing loans to disadvantaged entrepreneurs and business owners. MoFi helps people who lack the assets, income, experience, and/or credit history to qualify for bank financing. MoFi provides clients with access to capital through its small business loan program, then pairs each loan with free, comprehensive business training to help them build successful businesses, achieve financial sustainability, and establish a long-term relationship with a bank. MoFi helps clients build economic security, stop living paycheck-to-paycheck, break the cycle of poverty, and join the financial mainstream.

We also offer New Market Tax Credit financing for large-scale investment projects and down payment assistance for home buyers.

MoFi operates across Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon with offices in Missoula, Bozeman, Boise and Salt Lake City.

History

We started in 1986 as a project of Women’s Opportunity and Resource Development (WORD), a nonprofit formed to improve the lives of poor women in the Missoula area. The project eventually became Women’s Economic Development Group (WEDGo) and focused on entrepreneurial training that could raise women’s economic status.

In 1988, we helped found the Missoula Community Business Incubator (MCBI) so that both men and women in the area could receive community-based entrepreneurial training. WEDGo and MCBI eventually became Montana Community Development Corporation.

In 1989, the Western Montana Small Business Development Center was opened at Montana CDC to provide business consulting to the region. Financing was added in 1990, and in 1996, Montana CDC became one of the first Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) in the country to be certified by the U.S. Treasury.

Montana CDC’s powerful New Markets Tax Credits Program was established in 2008 to catalyze impactful, large-scale development projects that create quality jobs, generate economic growth and vitality, and expand access to essential community services.

More recently, we had expanded our scope to include affordable housing solutions (HomeNow down payment assistance, home repair loans, and Resident Owned Community (ROC) loans).

Today, we are known as MoFi and provide financing and consulting to entrepreneurs and small business owners across the Northern Rockies. We continue to expand our services where needed, while staying true to our mission of transforming lives and strengthening communities.