Annual Certification and Data Collection Report (ACR)

The Annual Certification and Data Collection Report (ACR) is the yearly check-in that keeps a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) certified. Every certified CDFI files it with the CDFI Fund in AMIS (Awards Management Information System), whether or not it holds an award. The ACR confirms that the organization still meets each certification requirement. It also gathers data the Fund uses to study the industry.

The report asks about the organization, its mission and board, its financing activity, its target market results and its financial position. For banks and credit unions, the financial section is filled in from regulator call report data once that data is public. Under the revised certification rules, the ACR is paired with the Transaction Level Report (TLR). The TLR supplies the loan-level detail used to test the target market threshold.

Timing depends on the CDFI's fiscal year end and on which application it was certified under. Under the older rules, the ACR was due within 90 days of fiscal year end. The Fund's guidance says CDFIs certified under the revised application file a revised ACR within 180 days of fiscal year end. As of June 2026, the Fund had not yet posted the 2026 ACR schedule in AMIS. Each CDFI should check its own reporting schedule there.

Why it matters for lenders

The ACR is not optional paperwork. The CDFI Fund states that failing to file it can cost an organization its certification and can lead to sanctions for award recipients. Policy changes also tend to land here. For example, the Fund said CDFIs using a non-metro customized Investment Area must meet the threshold it revised in August 2026 the next time they file an ACR.

Because the ACR draws on the same facts as board reports and funder reports, mismatches are a real risk. If the ACR's loan totals differ from the audited financials or the TLR, reviewers will ask why.

How it works in practice

At a CDFI loan fund, the finance director owns the ACR. Two months before the due date, she pulls loan totals for the fiscal year from the closed books. She confirms the board roster and how the board stays accountable to the target market, and checks that the TLR has been certified. The lending lead confirms the target market results by count and by dollars.

Where loans, capital sources and target market tags all live on the same loan records, these numbers tie out on the first pass. Where they live in separate spreadsheets, the team often spends the last weeks reconciling counts that never matched. The deadline that protects the fund's CDFI certification then turns into a fire drill.