Community Reinvestment Program (CRP)

The Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) is a community-designed initiative to uplift communities. The goal is to create lasting economic benefits, build wealth and ensure everyone has a fair chance at success.

CRP partners with organizations across the state to support economic development, reentry services, legal assistance and violence prevention. In collaboration with community partners, CRP’s impact includes:

Creating jobs in partnership with diverse small businesses
Offering training programs to meet workforce needs
Higher self-sufficient incomes for people to support their families
Helping people acquire homes and start new businesses
Increasing safety of our neighborhoods through community-led projects

CRP funding opportunities

The Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) received $60 million for 2025–2027—including $50 million in new funds.

News and updates

November 12, 2025

CRP Update – November 2025

In the coming weeks, the Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) will be launching three funding opportunities. Commerce is taking a regional approach to CRP funding. For every grant program, there will be only one grantee selected per region. Interested applicants may apply for multiple opportunities or regions.

October 10, 2025

CRP Updates – October 2025

As we prepare for the next phase of the Community Reinvestment Program (CRP), we want to extend gratitude to the hundreds of community members, partners and organizations who shared their time, insights and experiences with us. Whether you participated in a listening session, completed a survey or offered feedback through other channels, your voice helped shape our approach for the 2025–2027 investment cycle.

August 19, 2025

New report from Northwest Credible Messengers highlights success of the Community Reinvestment Program

In collaboration with the Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) and leaders across the state, Northwest Credible Messengers (NWCM) helped build a peer support training program for barber and beauty professionals.

Resources

In 2022, the WA Legislature created the Community Reinvestment Account and appropriated $200 million to address racial, economic, and social disparities created by the historic design and enforcement of state and federal criminal laws and penalties for drug possession (the war on drugs). The Legislature directed that the Department of Commerce (Commerce) invest the funds into four program areas:

Economic development
Civil and criminal legal assistance
Community-based violence intervention and prevention
Reentry services

Commerce, in partnership with the WA Office of Equity, worked with communities across the state to develop a Community Reinvestment Plan laying out recommendations for how these funds would be invested over the 2023-2025 biennium (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025).

The Community Reinvestment Plan recommended Commerce distribute the $200 million across the state through more than 17 individual grant programs. Some of the grant programs were expansions of existing programs. Some of the programs represents new ideas, requiring more time and collaboration to implement.

To read the original plan, download the 2023-2025 Community Reinvestment Plan (PDF)

In 2025, the legislature appropriated $50 million of new funding for the CRP. Commerce is not required to follow the original Community Reinvestment Plan, but is directed to distribute funds for the program areas listed in RCW 43.79.567: Community reinvestment account, in similar proportions to the 2023-2025 investment areas. Additionally, the legislature updated the definition of by-and-for organizations. CRP by-and-for organizations include, but are not limited to, those operated by and for Black, Latine, Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.