African Heritage Economic Initiative, Inc.

African Heritage Economic Initiative, Inc., a Black American-owned nonprofit organization based on federal grant activity, acts as both a prime recipient and sub-recipient of federal grants focused on agricultural, food-system, and community-development financing support. The organization does not hold federal contracts and operates exclusively in the grant-funding space rather than as a federal contractor.

African Heritage Economic Initiative has received three federal grant awards totaling $260 thousand across a two-year window. As a prime grant recipient, the organization received a $260 thousand project grant from the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service in January 2022 to support COVID-19 relief costs for food processors, distributors, farmers markets, and producers — including workplace safety, facility retrofitting, transportation, worker housing, and medical expenses for affected employees. The grant covered expenses incurred between the January 27, 2020 public health emergency declaration and December 31, 2021, with ultimate completion in January 2023.

In its sub-recipient capacity, African Heritage Economic Initiative participates in two parallel federal grant initiatives. The organization received a sub-award in November 2024 from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund's CDFI Equitable Recovery Program, which provides capital to Community Development Financial Institutions to expand lending, grant making, and investment activity in low- to moderate-income communities and to borrowers disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, in April 2023, African Heritage Economic Initiative received a sub-award under The Reinvestment Fund, Inc.'s administration of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative Targeted Small Grants program, which provides one-time capital investments into fresh food retail and food system enterprises in underserved rural and urban areas.

Activity is sparse but steady: one award per year in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Customer concentration splits between the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service and the Rural Housing Service Rural Business Cooperative Services division.