How Appalachian Community Capital is strengthening financial resilience through shared infrastructure

Small businesses across Appalachia face a range of challenges — from hiring talent and managing cash flow to navigating shifts in local economies. Access to affordable capital is high on this list, but just as often, the challenge is navigating different loan programs, grant opportunities, technical assistance providers, and application processes that don’t always connect.

That gap plays out in real ways — business owners moving between lenders, grant programs and support organizations trying to piece together what they qualify for, while lenders are often working without a clear view of who is coming through the door or what they need.

Appalachian Community Capital focuses on making that system work better. Rather than lending directly, it supports a network of community lenders across the region — helping them access capital, share data, and more effectively connect small businesses to the right resources at the right time, including through its Data Hub, which brings together information and opportunities across lenders and the broader market to improve how businesses are matched to funding.

We sat down with Daniel Wallace, President & CEO of Appalachian Community Capital, to understand what’s changing, what’s working, and what still needs to shift to make access to capital more consistent for small businesses across Appalachia.

What does building financial resilience actually look like for small businesses in Appalachia today?

It means having access to a full range of support, from grants and flexible lending to technical assistance and education, so small businesses in rural Appalachian communities can withstand disruption and keep moving forward. In order for small businesses to thrive, they also depend on an economic ecosystem where capital investment stays rooted in the communities it's meant to support. When it does, it creates the conditions for long-term stability, generational wealth building, and regional durability.

What was this work designed to change?

This work was designed to expand access to capital for small businesses in Appalachian communities through the Appalachian Community Capital Data Hub, a platform for financial institutions such as CDFIs, and their economic development partners. The Data Hub fills a gap in knowledge and understanding, by allowing capital providers to map and respond to individual and collective business needs.

With support from Mastercard Strive USA, the Data Hub enables CDFIs and partners to better identify, match, and support small businesses, while reducing fragmentation and creating more consistent, equitable pathways to funding.

What shifted as a result?

What shifted was not just capacity, but clarity and coordination at scale. Following Hurricane Helene, the Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) Data Hub supported more than $55M in grants reaching over 2,100 small businesses, while the system itself moved from fragmented, manual processes to a more coordinated, data-driven approach. Improvements in intake, matching, and shared data made it easier to understand demand in real time, enabling CDFIs to make faster decisions, better align capital with real needs, and build stronger, more qualified pipelines.

In moments of disruption, like natural disasters, how has your platform helped move capital where it’s needed most?

In moments of disruption, speed and coordination become critical. During Hurricane Helene, the Appalachian Community Capital Data Hub made it possible to maintain real-time visibility into small business needs and respond more quickly as those needs evolved. By bringing together data from across lenders and partners, the system helped direct the allocation of resources, ensuring that they reached the businesses most impacted without the delays and disconnects that often slow response efforts.

How are you helping CDFIs reach and support small business owners who are often overlooked by traditional systems?

We help CDFIs work more effectively and efficiently by providing a means for businesses to identify the specific kinds of assistance they need, and connect to the right lenders and programs. On the other side, CDFIs receive more qualified, pre-screened opportunities, making it easier to prioritize high-potential matches and move more quickly into decision-making. For businesses that aren’t yet ready for capital, the system also helps route them to technical assistance, so they can build toward being finance-ready rather than falling out of the process entirely.

What did you learn that others in the field should pay attention to?

One of the biggest takeaways is that building a more effective system requires more than better tools — it requires coordination, trust, and alignment across the organizations involved. Technology can support that, but it has to be designed around how CDFIs and small businesses actually operate, not the other way around.

The work also reinforced the importance of place-based approaches, where capital and decision-making stay rooted in the communities they are meant to serve. When that is combined with the right network of partners, it creates a system that can move faster, match resources more effectively, and respond more directly to real-world needs.

What needs to change to ensure small businesses in rural and overlooked communities have more consistent access to capital — and what comes next?

Access to capital should not depend on who you know or where you are located. Creating more consistent access requires stronger shared infrastructure, better coordination across lenders and partners, and more transparent systems that make it easier to understand demand and align resources accordingly.

The next phase of this work is focused on continuing to build and scale that infrastructure — expanding the reach of the Data Hub across more CDFIs and deepening how it integrates into existing workflows, so capital can be identified, matched, and deployed more effectively as needs evolve over time.