Arizona Benefit CDE was established by a group of professionals, natives of Arizona, who had learned about and were inspired by the programs that the CDFI Fund offers to provide innovative investment capital to service low income community.  After about a year of trying to reach out to other Certified CDEs to gain their support and finance projects in Arizona, and after having been turned down or ignored multiple times, these group of professionals decided to create their own CDE to accomplish their shared mission and vision.  There are many CDEs that focus on other low-income communities and rural areas in the US, but none that focus solely on Arizona.  Thus, Arizona Benefit CDE was created.

Arizona is currently ranked #48 in the nation in Public Education.  AB-CDE does not intend to fix that problem any time soon, and this is not our scope.  However, our scope is to help build high-quality private schools in low-income and economically distressed communities where the surrounding Public School Districts are C, D and even F-rated by the Arizona Department of Education’s Standards.