In 2015, while I was at the University of Michigan, I helped a former student, James Wahls, design a program to bring together a local CDFI, philanthropies, and several banks, to launch the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund in Detroit.
The Fund extended credit to small businesses in Detroit that otherwise might not qualify for bank lending, at the rate of more than $ million a year. 27 And that same approach is now being used by eight  Testimony of William J.