Our Path
Our Path
Becoming a community lender is a ladder, not a leap. Here is the ladder we are climbing — and where we stand on it today.
What is a CDFI?
A Community Development Financial Institution is a mission-driven lender certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. Certification recognizes lenders that serve communities mainstream banks have left behind — and it opens doors to federal award programs, bank partnerships, and larger capital designed for exactly this work. Certification requires proof: a performing loan portfolio, development services like coaching and credit building, and a board accountable to the community served.
The ladder we are climbing
First loans
Small, well-secured demonstration loans to community borrowers. Every on-time payment becomes evidence.
Track record
A performing portfolio plus development services — financial coaching, credit building — is the proof the Treasury requires.
CDFI certification
The Treasury's recognition that we are a real community lender, serving our Target Market with a board accountable to it.
Federal and leveraged capital
Certification opens the CDFI Fund's award programs — including the Native American CDFI Assistance program — plus bank partnerships and larger philanthropic investment.
A permanent institution
Repayments recycle into new loans; the fund becomes self-renewing — money that circulates in the community instead of leaving it.
Where we stand today
- Legal formation — independent North Dakota nonprofit (May 2024), Articles and Bylaws adopted
- Board-approved loan policy and underwriting standards
- Six loan products designed, with full origination, closing, and servicing systems built
- Initial lending capital secured through mission-aligned partners
- Quarterly reporting relationship established with a national Native CDFI intermediary
- Final independent board seats — recruitment underway
- Legal review of loan documents — in progress
- First loans — opening soon
- CDFI certification — application to follow our first year of lending
The need, in our Nation’s own words
Our Tribe’s own Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy names the gap plainly: median household income on Standing Rock is roughly half the U.S. median, about half of the workable population is unemployed, and 44% of our people — including 57% of our children — live below the poverty line. Standing Rock has no brick-and-mortar bank serving most of the reservation. WITAYA exists because our Nation has already documented the need.
Source: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, 2026–2031.
Every WITAYA loan comes with coaching — plan-building, credit repair, financial education. That’s not an extra; it’s half of what a CDFI is.
WITAYA Financial Solutions is an independent North Dakota nonprofit corporation working toward certification as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund. WITAYA is not yet a certified CDFI. WITAYA’s application for federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt recognition is in progress.