Growing rural prosperity with Communities Unlimited

Communities Unlimited operates as a community development financial institution, providing lending and capacity-building resources to entities that often fall below the threshold for funding by traditional banks or lending institutions. CU's mission is to connect rural Americans to solutions that sustain healthy businesses, healthy communities and healthy lives. It aims to change the economic trajectory of rural and under-resourced communities toward measurable and sustainable prosperity.

Headquartered in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and operating in seven states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas), CU works to improve economic conditions for underserved rural communities in the South. Its approach focuses on several key areas—community economic sustainability, entrepreneurship for small businesses, environmental services for water and wastewater treatment, and small-scale farming to produce healthy foods as well as supplemental programs for housing, broadband and GIS mapping.

CU is led by Chief Executive Officer Ines Polonius, who began her career by forming a consulting firm in 1998 to start and grow micro-enterprises and small businesses in the rural Arkansas Delta. In 2014, the organization, alt.Consulting, merged with Community Resource Group to form CU. The organization has grown to employ 115 full-time employees who work closely with local leaders to create fair access to resources needed to sustain healthy communities, healthy businesses and healthy families. The emphasis on local-led solutions contributes to the strength of CU's initiatives.

As the recipient of a $250,000 general operating grant, CU aims to use funding to strengthen its processes of blending capacity-building programs with lending to drive forward strategies developed by rural community leaders. The funding will also fill gaps to expand program access to communities.