Supporting Immigrant, Spanish-Speaking, and Rural Entrepreneurs at Our San Luis Valley Site
“Seeing other entrepreneurs succeed has been our biggest inspiration and support.” We believe entrepreneurship can play a key role in strengthening our rural communities. Yet those communities often lack the resources and investment necessary...
4,500 Hours of Community in Action
In 2022, more than 230 RMMFI volunteers contributed over 4,500 hours to supporting inclusive entrepreneurship in Colorado. As mentors and coaches, workshop facilitators, loan reviewers, and more, volunteers shared their expertise and passion to help...
What We Achieved Together in 2022
“I learned that I am an entrepreneur, I am a business owner, and I'm going to be very successful in this journey.” As 2022 comes to an end, we wanted to celebrate a few highlights from the past year at RMMFI: 71 entrepreneurs graduated...
RMMFI’s Social Impact: For Every $1 Invested, $3.98 in Impact is Created
The impact of inclusive entrepreneurship cannot be measured solely by the number of businesses launched. When we create equitable access to the economy, we generate individual and household prosperity as well as broad community and economic benefits...
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Tanaka Shipp
Owner of Queenshipp Tanaka Shipp is the founder and CEO of Queenshipp, an organization that focuses on youth empowerment through experiential education. Queenshipp’s mission is to empower all young people, including queer, trans, and non-binary...
Our First-Ever Impact Report
It’s been a transformational year at RMMFI. We served a record number of entrepreneurs in the Denver Metro area while simultaneously scaling our model to support new communities across the state. We reached $1 million lent and introduced our first...
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Zedraielle Thompson
Owner of ZesteaZed Zedraielle Thompson owns ZesteaZed, a soon-to-be food truck focused on Navajo tacos and Navajo tea. Zed, as her friends call her, was born and raised on the Navajo reservation in Tsaile, Arizona, and moved to Colorado with her...
Announcing Launch Grants and New Loan Limits
For most of RMMFI’s history, we’ve offered business capital exclusively through loans. We started providing some grants this past year, but they were limited to entrepreneurs living and working in Northwest Aurora and business owners who were...
From $500 to $1 Million Lent
We’re continuing to celebrate RMMFI’s millionth dollar lent by taking a look back at our lending program over the past 14 years. As of the time we reached the $1 million milestone, we had lent $1,016,966 across 329 loans ranging from $246 to...
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Jariatu Yillah
Owner of Israel Enterprises RMMFI’s first-ever loan went to Jariatu Yillah, owner of Israel Enterprises. Jariatu is an immigrant from Sierra Leone, and she started her business selling imported accessories more than a decade ago as a way to build...
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Daliah Torrez
Owner of Coffee Seasonings Daliah Torrez and her husband developed the idea for their business, Coffee Seasonings, a few years ago when they moved from Denver to Alamosa to buy land and raise livestock. Daliah has always enjoyed the atmosphere that...
$1 Million Lent to Colorado Entrepreneurs
We’ve reached an exciting milestone at RMMFI: $1 million lent to Colorado entrepreneurs! That’s $1 million in capital — backed by capacity-building education and mentorship — invested in entrepreneurs whose potential might have otherwise...