Latin couple in home

The MacArthur-supported Wells Fargo NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance, the country’s largest and most coveted awards program for community development financial institutions (CDFIs), announced that it will award the 2013 NEXT Seed Capital Award to Freedom First Federal Credit Union in Roanoke, Virginia. The credit union will use the $100,000 award to develop its American Dreamer Loan product, which will provide Roanoke-based immigrants financing they need to apply for citizenship. Each year through 2016, the no-strings attached NEXT Seed Capital Award will go to one CDFI with a promising idea for expanding its products and services to serve more low-income people and communities.