Two Community Development Financial Institutions with Similar Goals but Different Approaches Are Expanding Black-Owned Businesses

Part of the IMPACT Stories series by State of Black Arizona.

How Growth Partners Arizona and Hustle PHX are revolutionizing support for small businesses and addressing the wealth gap

Andre Whittington and Oye Waddell both lead nonprofit organizations with a portfolio of economic empowerment programs, including formal community development financial institutions certified by the U.S. Treasury Department.

CDFIs, which are “market-driven, locally-controlled, private-sector organizations,” according to the national CDFI Coalition, support “business, housing, voluntary organizations and services central to revitalizing” underserved neighborhoods. These neighborhoods often reflect the nationwide “wealth gap” between Black and White Americans. Most State of Black Business reports have noted the long-term disparities that have resulted from Black families’ traditionally lower incomes, less access to business capital and limited generational transfer of wealth.

Andre’s Growth Partners Arizona operates statewide, and he is the first Black leader of this sizable CDFI. Oye’s Hustle PHX has recently added a CDFI to its portfolio of individual services in the state’s largest metro area. Each, in his own way, has jumpstarted community development to expand Black-owned businesses and address the wealth gap.

“Addressing the issue of access to capital for underserved communities can be approached from several angles. Our school of thought involves educating, informing and guiding Black and minority business owners on tools and opportunities they can use in their entrepreneurial journey.” - State of Black Business Report, 2023

Andre Whittington is Growth Partners’ Chief Collaborator

A New Orleans native, military veteran and self-described risk taker who “loves challenges,” Andre Whittington realized he wanted more out of life than even his high-powered corporate job or consulting success could offer. Despite the pandemic’s uncertainties, he decided to reorient his career to ensuring community impact, especially by building inclusive economies in places that traditionally have been underserved.

A consulting contact introduced him to Growth Partners Arizona just when the Board of Directors was seeking someone to take the decade-old organization, which had specialized in nonprofit technical assistance and loans, into a new era. They wanted greater impact as a CDFI and a collaborative hub for community development, business financing and revitalization. The time was right for Growth Partners Arizona to be a bigger, more diverse entity, a better public policy advocate and a stronger hub for innovation, collaboration and investments.

Andre started at Growth Partners Arizona in November 2022. Since then, the nonprofit organization has grown substantially, extending its reach statewide and advancing work on its short-term priorities, namely to: grow intentionally through partnerships and collaboration; launch a growth lending model (i.e., increasing organizational capacity as a CDFI and improving customers’ experience); and strengthen outcomes and amplify impact.

The collaborative strategy has garnered attention from the Governor’s Office and organizations looking for community development partners in such areas as business development, character-based lending, green energy and brownfields redevelopment. Recently, he was appointed to the boards of the Arizona Finance Authority, Arizona Industrial Development Authority and Greater Arizona Development Authority.

Growth Partners Arizona plays a variety of community development roles at the same time. Andre describes the group’s work as 1) a provider of catalytic capital (often meaning he is seeking partners and investors for expansion or a new loan fund); 2) a community partner helping to build a collaborative ecosystem; and 3) a direct business lender with presence in Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff.

As a result, Growth Partners Arizona, at once, can be working directly with Black entrepreneurs on loans, growth, or pitch competitions, advising cities on supporting entrepreneurs in their communities, helping elected officials understand the challenges BIPOC entrepreneurs have and the potential growth they represent, and developing partnerships with traditional financial players.

No matter the community development effort, Growth Partners Arizona’s overarching strategy is collaborating with others to invest in inclusive economies in Arizona.

Oye Waddell Powers Hustle PHX for the Common Good

Oye Waddell, a “social entrepreneur,” started Hustle PHX in 2014. The “hustle” nods to his upbringing in a tough South Central Los Angeles neighborhood where he saw family and friends taking advantage of the opportunities (often illegal ones) most available to them. The potential for good from those obvious entrepreneurial skills stayed with him as he studied at the University of Washington, planning to go home to change his community.

After years of starting and managing youth sports programs and leading community development programs in South Central LA, he came to Phoenix to learn more about education, specifically, how to start charter schools as another tool for his neighborhood to address the “school-to-prison-pipeline” he saw affect many families.

Instead, understanding the rise in the prison population and the relationship to economic crimes, he stayed and began Hustle PHX. The organization was started to help young residents have an alternative to selling drugs by creating businesses that help communities flourish instead of tearing them down.

Hustle PHX helps residents turn their ideas—or their hustles—into real businesses, ripe for growth and, eventually, for prosperity, even wealth. Through classes and mentoring that supply “intellectual, social and financial capital,” Hustle PHX takes future business owners from idea to reality to scaling sustainable enterprises. Loans, credit-building and personal and business support are all part of Hustle PHX’s “missional lending.” The education, networks and access to dollars are changing people and places that haven’t seen investment for some time.

Oye saw the hardships residents endured to find financing and how they could be taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders. Today, he talks about walking with them “arm in arm” and “step by step” for long-term sustainable growth. However, the decision to start the now three-year-old CDFI required an intense effort, especially for someone without banking experience. Recruiting advisers and raising capital testified to Oye’s devotion to learning and dedication to Phoenix’ Black and underserved communities.

Also a business owner (New Culture and Adonai Family Homes) and pastor at Sojourn Village Church, Oye’s work has been shaped by numerous faith leaders and the mentoring and resources available in their churches. In addition, numerous financial and community institutions now sponsor aspects of Hustle PHX.

With more investment in business growth and community quality of life from Hustle PHX, Arizona’s largest metro may, thankfully, never be the same.