South Central Collaborative: Q&A with Facilitator Shannon Scutari
The Raza Development Fund is proud to partner with the South Central Collaborative – a group ensuring the community’s voice and ideas are heard in a transit-oriented development project in Phoenix. Ever since the light rail was introduced to Phoenix in 2008, we’ve seen the benefits it has brought to the city as well as the unfortunate consequences it can have on residents and local businesses. In 2016, the City of Phoenix received funding to extend the light rail 5.5 miles along Central Avenue to Baseline Road in South Phoenix with an expected project completion in 2024. Together, the Collaborative …
4 Reasons to Shop Small This Holiday Season
It’s that time of year when we get to show our appreciation and our love for family and friends with special gifts. This holiday season, the Raza Development Fund encourages you to shop small and support local small businesses. For over a year and a half, the Raza Development Fund has been proud to add small business support to its main areas of investment. We realized early on in the pandemic that we had a responsibility to support small business owners. To meet the need, our Small Business Initiative (SBI) went from a two-person team to a seven-person team in the matter of less than twelve months providing technical assistance …
RDF Moves to its Roots in South Phoenix, the Heart of the Community: Join Us To Celebrate!
It’s time! We’ve been sharing the news and construction updates over the last year, and the time has finally arrived. We are moving to our new headquarters in the heart of South Phoenix. As a national CDFI nonprofit, RDF’s mission is to responsibly invest capital into the community and we recognize that in order to do that, we must be where the community needs its capital. For us, South Phoenix more than made sense. It brought us back to our roots, where the inspiration for a Hope Fund, now RDF, was given life. You’re invited to a community Grand Opening. …
Meet Candice Gonzales: Former RDF Intern Turned Small Business Owner
Once a part of the RDF team, you’re always a member of the Familia! That’s why we love reconnecting with our former interns. In the spirit of National Women’s Small Business Month, we are proud to cheer on Candice Gonzales, owner of the House of RemiRose bridal boutique. She interned for three summers, and she is now a part of the South Phoenix small business owner community. “I am very proud of her and what she’s accomplished,” shares Star Reyes, RDF’s Client Services Manager, Candice’s intern supervisor. “She’s a fighter and I am so glad to have had her as my …
Raza Development Fund muda su sede al corazón de la comunidad
Volvemos a casa! En Raza Development Fund estamos ansiosos de mudar nuestra sede a South Phoenix, para servir desde el corazón de nuestra comunidad. Para hacerlo, nos hemos aliado con Gould Evans —una firma con sede en Phoenix que conoce la misión e historia de RDF—, para que diseñe nuestro nuevo hogar. “Ha sido una gran alianza. Hacen un excelente trabajo y les tenemos confianza. No requirió ningún esfuerzo elegirlos porque nos conocen bien y pueden entender la dinámica de lo que estamos tratando de hacer y lo que estamos tratando de crear dentro de la comunidad”, compartió Star Reyes, …
Volvemos a casa: Una colaboración de diseño con Gould Evans
¡Volvemos a casa! En Raza Development Fund estamos ansiosos de mudar nuestra sede a South Phoenix, para servir desde el corazón de nuestra comunidad. Para hacerlo, nos hemos aliado con Gould Evans —una firma con sede en Phoenix que conoce la misión e historia de RDF—, para que diseñe nuestro nuevo hogar. “Ha sido una gran alianza. Hacen un excelente trabajo y les tenemos confianza. No requirió ningún esfuerzo elegirlos porque nos conocen bien y pueden entender la dinámica de lo que estamos tratando de hacer y lo que estamos tratando de crear dentro de la comunidad”, compartió Star Reyes, …
Raza Development Fund headquarters moves to the heart of the community
We’re coming home! The Raza Development Fund looks forward to moving our corporate headquarters to South Phoenix, serving from the heart of our community. To do that, we partnered with Gould Evans, a Phoenix-based studio that knows the RDF mission and history, to design our new home. “We’ve had a great partnership. They do good work, and we trust them. It was kind of a no brainer to choose them because they know us well and could understand the dynamics of what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to create within the community,” shares Star Reyes, RDF’s Client Services Manager who has worked closely with the Gould Evans team on the …
RDF Celebrates Hispanic Heritage
At the Raza Development Fund, our Familia is thrilled to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month. Just as we are passionate about serving our Latino community, we enjoy spotlighting our heritage and culture. The Latino culture is rich and vibrant – our language, food, art and music – brings beauty to our families, to our communities and to the country as a whole. In our Latino community, we stick together and help each other out. We carry this into our work every day at RDF as we strive to provide capital, capacity and cariño into our community while having pride in our roots. This is the energy we’ll carry into our new building. As a national nonprofit, …
RDF Invests In Its Familia: Meet Fernando Ortega, Jr.
Raza Development Fund is proud to welcome Fernando Ortega, Jr., RDF’s Loan Operations Specialist, to our team of experts. Fernando brings experience in client relations, loan documentation processing and administration, portfolio management and Small Business Administration lending. He joined the Familia earlier this month with passion to serve his community and contribute to RDF’s mission. Just as RDF invests capital in its community, it invests in its Familia. Fernando looks forward to overcoming obstacles and pursuing his dreams of attaining higher education– with RDF’s support. Join us as we get to know Fernando and cheer on his upcoming education journey …
RDF Retreat to Celebrate Our Mission
We showed up with our bags packed, ready for two full days of bonding, motivation and individual growth. The Raza Development Fund Familia stayed at a local resort together a couple weeks ago to enjoy inspiring speakers, great food and connection. This retreat was part two of our recent in-person staff meeting in June, the first time together in over a year. It gave us a chance to spend even more time together. And this time, many of our out-of-state Familia who support RDF’s East Coast Region, Pacific Northwest Region and South-Central Region offices joined us as well. “It was …
