ACT! wins $500K USDA grant to fund rural business lending in Georgia
What's the deal? Albany Community Together, Inc. (ACT!)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture Rural DevelopmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to establish a revolving loan fund for small businesses across Southwest Georgia. The Albany-based nonprofit, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), will administer the fund and lend to qualified businesses in a 14-county target area.
What's the endgame? The grant, awarded through the Rural Business Development Grant Program, will capitalise a revolving loan fund. As borrowers repay, those dollars return to the fund and can be redeployed to new businesses — stretching the impact well beyond the first round of lending.
Why now? ACT!Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is targeting a persistent gap: access to capital for rural entrepreneurs who often have fewer conventional lending options. The fund is designed to support business development, expansion, and job creation across counties including Baker, Colquitt, Dougherty, Grady, Thomas, and Worth.
"This investment provides ACT! with another important tool to address one of the greatest challenges facing entrepreneurs in rural communities—access to capital," said Dr. Thelma Adams Johnson, president and chief executive officer of ACT!
Johnson pointed to the fund's design as its main strength. "The power of this investment is that the dollars do not have to stop working after the first loan," she said. "As the capital revolves, ACT! can continue investing in businesses and communities throughout Southwest Georgia."
What could go wrong? Eligibility is not guaranteed. Businesses must meet USDA geographic and program requirements plus ACT!'s own underwriting standards, meaning a location within the 14 counties does not automatically qualify a borrower.
The signal: At $500,000, the grant sits in the 26th percentile by amount among comparable rounds — modest in absolute terms, but structured to compound. The revolving model reflects a broader push in rural finance to make limited public capital work repeatedly rather than once.
Read more: Morning Ag Clips
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