National New Markets Fund (NNMF) Awarded $95M in New Market Tax Credits (NMTCs) - its 15^th Award from U.S. Department of Treasury

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National New Markets Fund (NNMF), an affiliate of Los Angeles-based impact investor SDS Capital Group, has been awarded a $95 million New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation from the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. This award is part of the CDFI’s $10 billion 2024-2025 round, the largest allocation in the program’s history.

National New Markets Fund (NNMF) was created by SDS Capital Group in 2006. Its mission is to further economic and community development in distressed census tracts across the South and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Since 2010, NNMF refined its investment strategy to invest exclusively in U.S.-based manufacturing, food processing, and agricultural-focused businesses. NNMF’s capital is used for plant expansions, equipment, machinery, and working capital, with a mission of enabling these firms to remain in the United States so they can continue generating high-quality jobs within economically distressed communities.

“For nearly two decades, NNMF has been investing in America’s most distressed urban and rural communities. Since the Great Financial Crisis, we have focused our efforts on financing manufacturers, keeping these quality jobs here in the U.S. and creating opportunities for families living in high-poverty rural and urban communities,” said Deborah La Franchi, Founder and CEO of SDS Capital Group. “This NMTC award – our 15^th award out of 18 application rounds - enables us to continue investing to create quality jobs that support America’s working class.”

To date, NNMF has financed 51 projects. The $752 million invested has created and preserved over 15,000 jobs in census tracts with an average poverty rate of 33%. Fourteen of these projects have been in rural communities, creating over 2,300 jobs. The types of manufacturing, food processing, and agricultural-focused companies NNMF invests in are wide-ranging. For instance, NNMF invested $17.5M investment into Bongards Creameries, a farmer-owned co-op in rural Perham, Minnesota consisting of 165 member farms. The capital purchased equipment for their milk processing plant, enabling the farmers to process milk into cheese and whey products, rather than just selling a low-priced commodity. Bongards’ milk intake capacity increased by almost 33% as a result.

“NNMF financed us two years ago to expand our Perham production facility. As a result, more than 165 family farms have since hired over 300 new employees,” said Bongards CFO Chris Freeman “The investment enabled these small farms to remain financially viable and to continue operating in their communities.”

In 2024, NNMF provided another $17.5M allocation to Rich Products, a frozen foods manufacturer in Brownsville, Texas for the expansion of its manufacturing facility creating more than 132 new jobs in a community with 49% poverty. With the same award, NNMF provided $15M to apparel manufacturer Komar Brands for its distribution center in Ellabell, Georgia creating 296 new jobs in a community facing 14% unemployment, 1.7x the national average.

The New Market Tax Credit program was created in 2000 to advance economic development in economically distressed communities by providing tax credit allocations to groups, such as NNMF, which in turn sell the credits to institutional investors and use the proceeds for high impact projects. The program was made permanent this year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July 2025.

“SDS, NNMF and our borrowers are all deeply appreciative of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s continued support of this critical economic and community development program and the double round of $10 billion that was announced at the end of the 2025,” underscores Ms. La Franchi. “Both Congress and the Administration’s continued support of the credit is making a difference in our country’s most distressed communities.”

To date, the NMTC program has generated $77 billion in qualified equity investment and $143 billion in total development financing to over 8,900 businesses across urban, suburban, and rural low-income communities, creating 1.2 million jobs nationwide.

About National New Markets Fund

National New Markets Fund, LLC, founded in 2005, has invested $752 million (51 investments) of its New Markets Tax Credit allocation into projects located in the Great Lakes region and the Deep South. Each investment has provided critical community services or quality jobs to high-distress communities – such as hospitals, charter schools, and food banks, as well as job-creating manufacturing expansions. In 2013, NNMF narrowed its focus to invest only in manufacturing, food-processing companies, and agricultural-focused firms (26 companies total). This more focused strategy centers on creating quality jobs for the residents of these distressed communities – both rural and urban. SDS Capital Group, the parent of NNMF, is a pioneer and national leader in impact investing. SDS’s founder, Deborah La Franchi, launched SDS in 2001 with a vision of creating a platform of impact funds that would attract and engage the private sector in the battle against poverty. Today, SDS’s platform includes five distinct impact fund strategies ($2.6 billion current asset under management; additional $1.1 billion exited), with its direct investments having helped support the creation of over 25,000 jobs and over 7,800 affordable or permanent supportive housing units throughout the US.