Evaluating Technical Assistance and Economic Opportunity Outcomes of the Community Advantage Pilot Program

Community Advantage (CA) provides loans of up to $250,000 and aims to fill a gap between SBA’s Microloan program and its traditional 7(a) program. A key feature of the CA program is that SBA works with mission lenders who may offer their borrowers technical assistance and business counseling in addition to financing. Through this study, the SBA seeks to understand the impact of technical assistance and business counseling and the economic outcomes achieved by CA borrowers, understand the factors affecting loan performance, and to identify good practices from the CA program that may be transferable to SBA’s other lending programs. This study is part of a comprehensive effort by SBA to evaluate the performance of the CA program.