Black Money: A conversation with Andre Whittington from Growth Partners Arizona

Justin Minott from the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs interviews Andre Whittington, CEO of Growth Partners Arizona, focusing on his/her journey, mission, and the impact of her/his work. Here is a brief recap of this powerful conversation:

Justin Minott: What makes you tick? Give us the essence of who you are.

Andre Whittington: That's a deep question! I'd say I'm a pretty complex person shaped by my experiences. I’m a military veteran who served in the Army infantry and a construction enthusiast, having installed underground utilities before homes were built. I’m a college dropout who briefly studied public health and even taught a class at Brown University.

After working as a researcher at Eli Lilly, I left the corporate world, including a stint at Comcast, to start my own consulting business. My passion lies in helping small businesses and minority-led nonprofits grow. However, I often encountered challenges with capital readiness, which led me to my current role at Growth Partners Arizona, focusing on capital deployment.

My life philosophy revolves around taking risks and not letting setbacks define me. Growing up in New Orleans and witnessing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina profoundly shaped my understanding of community and economic development. I see myself as a quilt made of diverse experiences, all contributing to who I am today.

Justin: What fuels your passion at Growth Partners Arizona?

Andre: My upbringing in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans profoundly influences me. Witnessing my family's struggles shaped my desire to help others realize their potential. I joined the military because it was my only option at the time, and seeing the disparities between my experiences and those of others motivated me to support dreams and opportunities for others. It just takes the right person to believe in them to support their dreams. At Growth Partners, we're so privileged to be in this position to be able to invest in someone else's vision for their business or their community and I think it's those small connections that drive me to do the work that I'm doing today.

Justin: Brilliant. You are building people's dreams. Can you share the history and mission of Growth Partners Arizona?

Andre: Growth Partners Arizona began as a nonprofit loan fund created by community founders in Southern Arizona who had a passion and a vision to help out nonprofits. The organization aimed to support nonprofits facing cash flow challenges. In 2018, it became a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). When I joined, I had no experience with CDFIs and brought an entrepreneurial perspective, crafting a 12-year strategic roadmap. Though we faced challenges in our first months, we focused on innovation and technology, ultimately deploying $1.8 million in loans over the past year and expanding our presence statewide. 

Justin: How do you lead during challenging times when immediate results aren’t visible?

Andre: There are three key strategies I rely on:

1. Strong Board Leadership: A good board chair is crucial for communication and trust, helping to bridge understanding between the board and management. But I was very intentional in sharing where we were going
2. Inclusive Vision: I made sure the board was involved in strategic decisions, such as adopting equitable lending practices, which fosters a sense of ownership in our mission.
3. Commitment to Goals: I stick to my proverbial guns, my vision despite frustrations or setbacks. It’s essential to remain transparent about challenges and continuously educate the board and team to align on our goals.

Justin: That's good. When it comes to equitable underwriting, talk about what that really means in practice and what you've been able to accomplish in terms of the metrics on the other side.

Andre: Our journey towards equitable underwriting is very intentional, focusing on incremental steps that allow us to fulfill our mission while being fiscally responsible. Instead of trying to do everything, we streamlined our organization to excel at what we do best and identified partners who can fill in the gaps.

We aim to be a capital partner, deploying funds through alternative lending while maintaining the right risk tolerance for our investors. To achieve this, we collaborate with organizations that support small businesses, rather than managing business development ourselves. We prefer to work with businesses that have gone through incubators or accelerators, ensuring they are well-prepared when seeking funding.

Partnerships with organizations like Cap EQ and Path 1555 have helped us learn to adapt our policies and underwriting processes for more equitable outcomes. This collaborative approach has enabled us to deploy capital efficiently over the past year.

Justin: Yeah. Mhmm. That's incredible. Now talk about the scene in Arizona. I'm not as familiar with Arizona. What's the financial landscape like? 

Andre: It's tough in Northern Arizona, where many areas lack banks or financial institutions—it's essentially a financial desert. Some small banks exist, but they don't lend to small businesses. Securing micro loans, even as little as $50,000, can be a challenge, often requiring collateral like a home that many small business owners don’t have.

While the landscape is improving, with the state recently allocating a $5 million grant to support micro enterprises, significant barriers remain. When I first joined Grow Partners, about 40-45% of our loans were used to restructure expensive debt, with some owners paying as much as $15,000 a month, which is crippling. We've seen businesses go bankrupt due to these burdens. We're making progress, but there's still a long way to go to support small businesses effectively.

Justin: What’s the future vision for Grow Partners Arizona?

Andre: We're embracing a "go slow to go fast" approach. To achieve our goals, we need to build a collaborative ecosystem across Arizona, which Grow Partners is facilitating. We're focusing on our core role as a CDFI while forming partnerships with organizations like Prestamos and Hustle Phoenix to create a CDFI network, which we prefer to call a network rather than a coalition.

This network will enable us to advocate collectively to policymakers and financial institutions, encouraging them to invest more in Arizona. We're also developing a platform with HUUB that provides technical assistance to small businesses. This platform will include a capital readiness assessment to match businesses with appropriate loan programs based on their qualifications.

The goal is to streamline the process, allowing small businesses to receive funding quickly—ideally within 24 to 36 hours—while also connecting them to resources if they don’t qualify for a loan. We're excited about building this ecosystem to support small businesses across the state.

Justin: That is so needed. So now we're sitting here in Hispanic heritage month. What role does Growth Partners Arizona play in supporting the Hispanic community.

Andre:  In Arizona, we collaborate closely with two prominent Hispanic-led CDFIs: Raza Development Fund and Prestamos CDFI, which is a part of Chicanos Por La Casa. They help us understand the cultural competencies necessary for serving Hispanic and Latino communities. Our aim is to bridge gaps in funding, especially for businesses that may not meet traditional loan requirements. We’re also ensuring that our programs are accessible in both Spanish and English and are engaging with border communities that primarily speak Spanish. We changed our target market as a CDFI, which was solely focused on serving the underserved communities, but now we focus is on supporting Hispanic women-owned, African American-owned, and eventually Native American-owned businesses, ensuring we serve diverse underserved populations effectively.

We have so many amazing success stories, across all demographics, and I'll share 1 in the spirit of this month. We have a program called Kiva. So Kiva is a, you know, Kiva is a crowdfunding platform, and it's one that we use for small businesses who have idea and they're trying to get their idea off the ground or just getting started.  One family we supported started with a Kiva loan for their daughter, who used it to scale her business. Inspired by her success, her sister and mother also obtained Kiva loans, and even their father, who had a dream of starting a restaurant, secured funding for his food truck. This family’s journey exemplifies how one loan can empower an entire generation to achieve their dreams.

Justin: How is Growth Partners Arizona succeeding in the microloan space?

Andre:  Our success in micro lending comes down to strong partnerships. We educate our partners on our underwriting guidelines, which helps us receive well-prepared referrals. We have a high approval rate for those referred to us. Additionally, we’re implementing new technologies to streamline the underwriting process and focusing on building relationships with our borrowers. Next year, we’re introducing a customer experience model to check in with our borrowers and show appreciation, which is crucial for sustaining these relationships.

Justin: How are you winning at this? What are some of the things that actually make that sustainable, scalable, you know, and to have the impact that you're trying to have? 

Andre: It all comes down to partnerships. In the micro loan space, it’s often said that the cost of processing a micro loan is similar to that of a larger loan. But I believe the focus should be on impact rather than just returns. It would be lazy to prioritize larger loans for higher returns when the time investment for underwriting is similar.

We've streamlined our micro loan process through technology and automation. Many of our loans come from partner referrals, and when these businesses meet our criteria, we have a 98% success rate in deploying funds. We also have a green loan program, where businesses complete a sustainable boot camp, ensuring their projects are financially viable and capable of repaying loans.

Additionally, we support BIPOC small businesses through a zero-interest loan fund, where our partners handle much of the groundwork. Moving into 2025, we’re implementing a customer experience model to strengthen relationships with our borrowers, including regular touchpoints that focus on their well-being and resources, rather than just loan status. Building these intentional relationships is crucial for our success and can benefit other organizations in the space as well.

Justin: How do you address the challenge of predatory lending in your work?

Andre: We aim to meet small business owners where they are by integrating technology with the trusted relationships that CDFIs have. Our new tech solution will provide clear pathways for funding while offering educational resources to small businesses. This helps ensure they’re prepared for future funding opportunities and combats the allure of fast-paced, predatory lending.

Justin: What does Black liberation mean to you?

Andre: Black liberation is an evolving concept for me. It involves understanding our history and embracing collective prosperity. It's about being intentionally Black in every role I take, recognizing the responsibility we have as leaders to uplift our communities.

Black liberation is, go get it. Go get it and keep getting it so that other people will come behind you and get it too. And so that's how I approach it, that's how I see it, but again it starts with educating yourself, removing this idea of self and ego, from it. And as my mom always told me, it's bigger than you, Andre. It's not about you, it's bigger than you and so I think if you embrace those things you will walk in every space with your blackness wearing it with intention and no one will feel any kind of way when you walk into a room you'll just respect the perspective in the space that you're coming from.

Justin: This is beautiful. Thank you. What is a song that you're jamming to right now?

Andre: I love music, man. But the song I'm bumping right now is from Larry June, the one about Napa from his recent album. Anything by Larry June, I'm bumping all day long. That's my guy.

Justin: That's great. Thank you for being who you are and for all the brilliant work you're doing. Thanks for the wisdom that you shared today. Really appreciate you. Any closing words for the good people? Because you're just this ball of inspiration. 

Andre: Oh, nothing. Just keep doing what you all are doing. Continue to do good work. You know, our people need us, the community needs us, so let's just continue to show up. That's it.

Justin: Continue to show up. That's what we're gonna end on. Mic drop.

Thank you for reading! You can watch the full interview HERE. Be sure to connect with Andre and follow him HERE to stay connected to the impact.