Colleen Ebbitt from JPMorganChase and Danielle Davis from First Enterprise join us today for a fascinating chat about listening to and supporting under-served businesses so they can thrive. How?

Well, Colleen covers JPMorganChase's small business philanthropy, which supports small business owners on their journeys to growth.

A £4m initiative, supported by JPMorganChase, is strengthening community development finance institutions' operations and helping CDFIs to deploy small business loans to great businesses which can't get the finance they need elsewhere.

"The problems that we're trying to solve are complex, multifaceted. They cannot be solved by private sector alone, public sector alone, social sector alone. So the work we do should focus on solving problems and creating value," says Colleen, explaning JPMorganChase's philosophy on the value of partnerships and creating community impact. She also talks about:

• the unique value of CDFIs as experts in supporting underserved businessses and under-invested regions

• how CDFIs take a relationship-based approach: "very different than other parts of the access to finance ecosystem that have become much more automated and quite frankly can make it even more difficult or create additional barriers for accessing finance"

• complementarity with the British Business Bank's groundbreaking Community ENABLE Funding (CEF) Programme

• the mid- and long-term potential outlook and impact

• being part of a "sea-change" by wortking with Responsible Finance, the BBB and CDFIs

First Enterprise is a CDFI which has been around since 1989. Danielle Davis covers how it has always had a strong focus on supporting underserved businesses, including those led by female and ethnic minority founders.

She describes how the JPMorganChase-supported capacity-building programme is giving First Enterprise new "oomph". It's a potent combination, "capital plus capacity" – First Enterprise is an accredited lender through the BBB's CEF programme, and Danielle explains how this means First Enterprise can support many more businesses. Also in Danielle's segment:

• how First is developing while maintaining everything its customers value such as non-financial business support

• what AI can enable

• refinancing short-term high-interest debt, with examples of a business which First Enterprise were able to save more than £30,000 pounds a month by refinancing stacked deals

What next?

• More about Responsible Finance and our member CDFIs: https://responsiblefinance.org.uk