Wigamig Receives CDFI Certification!

MONEY, VALUES AND COMMUNICATION 

Money Smart Event a Success! 

WJFW Channel12 News Segment

Zhoonyia Gikendasowin (Money Knowledge) Receives Governor's Financial Literacy Award 

INVESTING IN NATIVE COMMUNITIES & FAMILIES

Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc is a Native American Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) located in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. Wigamig is a non-profit organization with a primary purpose to assist community members with financial literacy, credit rehabilitation/repair, and understanding home ownership while providing affordable lending products.  Wigamig seeks to better our community by providing these services to low-income households in an effort to help this economically distressed community.

There is an increased need for lending in Native communities, since many conventional banks are facing tighter constraints and regulations. Wigamig has more flexibility in this arena to provide lending services and financial products to underserved markets.

The mission of Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc. is to provide financial education to Tribal Members to gain access to affordable lending opportunities.  We continually seek to encourage home ownership among Tribal Members in and around the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation. 

By providing financial education and credit repair/counseling, along with affordable lending products, Wigamig is strengthening tribal members and their families. Financial education is available in group sessions or by individual appointments.

Currently, Wigamig offers down-payment assistance loans, home improvement loans, and debt consolidation loans. These loans are available to Tribal Members that reside in or around the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation.  In the future, and as Wigamig’s capital grows, we will be able to provide lending opportunities to other Wisconsin Indian Reservations and to the greater Lakeland and surrounding areas.

Through the use of generous donations from private donors and grants from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and federal funding, we have created and continue to grow a revolving loan fund to support the renovations of distressed homes for people in need. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of donation monies go directly to Wigamig’s loan capital.

In addition, for the past 6 years, Wigamig has hosted a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Site providing a no-charge tax preparation service to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Wigamig hosts the site with trained VITA volunteers; the VITA Site Coordinator is also available by appointment for individual tax assistance or questions tax payers may have on correspondence from the IRS.  By offering our community this volunteer service, our residents have free assistance with their income taxes; therefore, keeping more money in the community. This free service has saved the community hundreds of thousands of dollars and combated predatory paid preparer’s services.

For more information, to make a donation,  to request an appointment, or to obtain a loan application, call the Wigamig office today at 715-588-1600, email Fern Orie, Executive Director at fern.orie@wigamig.org,  or visit our website at www.wigamig.org.

Financial Education Lunch & Learn 2013 Series! 

Money Smart Week is April 20 - 27, 2013

WOLF Annual Report 2012

Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc. is excited to announce that we have been awarded a technical assistance NACA Award for $140,105.00 from the CDFI Fund. WOLF was one of two Native CDFI's in the State of Wisconsin to receive an award, and one of 33 in the entire country. WOLF was also one of 18 recipients in the country to receive a technical assistance award!  These funds are for operating expenses for 2013-2014.  WOLF's Executive Director Fern Orie and Executive Assistant Michelle Dehart attended the awards ceremony in Milwaukee on August 6, 2012.  Fern is picutred below accepting the NACA award on WOLF's behalf; from left to right:  U.S. Representative Gwen Moore, Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Don Graves, WOLF Executive Director Fern Orie, and CDFI Fund Director Donna Grambell.  WOLF would like to thank Bagwajikwe Madosh who did the opening Ojibwe prayer ceremony in place of President Tom Maulson who could not attend due to an already scheduled engagement.

For more information on WOLF's loan products, call our office at 715-588-1600 or email Michelle Dehart at  E-mail or Fern Orie at  E-mail.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announces more than $186 million in awards to organizations

serving low-income and Native Communities.  This is the largest in history for Treasury's CDFI Fund

that helps spur job creation and economic growth in communities across the country.

******August 6, 2012, Milwaukee, WI:  Underscoring the U.S. Department of the Treasury's commitment to revitalizing economic and community development across the country, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) Director Donna J. Gambrell and Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Don Graves today joined U.S. Representative Gwen Moore to announce an aggregate total of $186,853,456 in awards to 210 organizations serving low-income communities. The fiscal year (FY) 2012 awards, provided through the CDFI Fund's Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program), represent the largest single announcement of award dollars and award recipients in the CDFI Fund's history.****** 

Both programs provide awards to certified and emerging Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that specialize in assisting low-income and distressed communities. In addition, the NACA Program has a particular focus of supporting CDFIs that serve primarily Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. In addition, the CDFI Program for the past two years has provided supplemental awards to highly-qualified applicants under the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which aims to increase access to healthy food options in low-income areas.

Speaking to a group of CDFIs that work in Wisconsin, Director Gambrell highlighted how the awards announced today will benefit a broad swathe of Americans. "I am pleased to announce the 2012 awards for the CDFI Program and the NACA Program, which will increase the capacity of CDFIs serving low-income and Native communities across the country," said Director Gambrell. This year's awardees will continue to provide vital financial services in low-income areas that are typically overlooked by traditional lenders, bettering the lives of Americans nationwide.

The CDFI Fund is awarding more than $175 million in CDFI Program awards and nearly $11.5 million in NACA Program awards.

U.S. Representative Gwen Moore attended the event in Milwaukee, which was held at Antigua, a restaurant that got its start with the help of loans and financial education provided by the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), a local CDFI and 2012 CDFI Program awardee. The restaurant has created 21 new jobs for the local community and demonstrates how CDFIs play a critical role in supporting local entrepeneurs and small businesses spur job creation and economic growth in communities across the country.

"The financial assistance and educational resources provided by the CDFI and NACA Programs here in Milwaukee are critical to our community's growth and for building a strong, robust economy,"said Representative Moore. "I want to thank CDFI Fund Director Donna J. Gambrell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury Don Graves, and the Department of the Treasury for choosing the great city of Milwaukee to make this very important announcement. I look forward to continuing to work with them to help provide these much needed resources to our most vulnerable communities."

The 210 awardees, the 177 CDFI Program awardees, and the 33 NACA Program awardees are headquartered in 41 states. Full details of the awardees may be found at the links below and on the CDFI Fund's website,  www.cdfifund.gov/ http://www.cdfifund.gov/

VITA (Voluteer Income Tax Assistance) 

Zhoonyia Gikendasowin (Money Knowledge)

WOLF Loan Product Terms/Guidelines

WOLF Can Help You Realize Your Dream!

WOLF Receives Grant

Money Smart Week in LDF a Success!

WIGAMIG OWNERS LOAN FUND, INC. (WOLF)
RECEIVES $141,350 GRANT FOR SERVING
ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

The Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc. (WOLF) recently received a $141,350 grant from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). The awards are being made through the fiscal year 2011 round of the CDFI Fund's Native Initiatives Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance component, the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The awards will assist financial institutions with a primary mission of serving Native communities to increase their lending services and financial products, as well as to build their own internal capacity to serve their target markets.

Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation located in downtown Lac du Flambeau. The mission of WOLF is to provide tribal members with access to mortgage lending opportunities that include home improvement and down payment assistance loans, as WOLF seeks to encourage home ownership among tribal members in and around the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation. For more information, contact Fern Orie, Wigamig Owners Loan Fund, Inc. Executive Director at 588-1600 or  E-mail

If you are wondering where your 2010 income tax refund is, the IRS has a pretty neat website. By entering a few bits of information you can check the status of your refund.