Appalachian Community Capital Development Foundation

2023 was a big year for acc. Founded in 2013, the organization celebrated ten years of making small businesses its mission, with membership growing to 34 members. Since 2015, when it first began lending, acc has leveraged $41.5 million and deployed $36 million in loans to acc members. In 2023, acc lent $8m to members who financed 40 loans; 55% of the loans were made to small businesses owned by women or persons of color.acc received a $1.5 million grant from the Appalachian regional commission to continue the successful opportunity appalachia technical assistance program. Since 2020, acc has supported 58 projects that seek to raise $471mm in financing and create 2,700 quality jobs. Investment priorities include downtown Development, housing, manufacturing, it, healthcare, education, food systems, renewable energy, and heritage tourism and recreation primarily in rural communities.also, acc launched a data analytics pilot project to increase regional cdfis' support small business owners of color and rural businesses in western north carolina.acc distributed $1 million through the veteran loan fund, and it joined forces with a national non-profit to begin raising $25 million to bridge the digital divide throughout appalachia. As the year ended, acc joined forces with regional and national partners to apply for the clean communities investment accelerator, part of the u.s. environmental protection agency's historic $27 billion greenhouse gas reduction fund. This action marked the expansion of acc's mission to increase access to Capital for the rapid deployment of low- and zero- emission products, technologies, and services and to create meaningful economic opportunity in energy communities.