The first lesson learned from PPP is that very small businesses, especially those owned by women and minorities, do not have strong ties with large, traditional banks. Of course, those of us in the economic development community knew this already. Large banks, many of which partner with us, are not how most mom-and-pop businesses gain access to capital.

After a lot of pushing by the economic development community, the Treasury Department allowed Community Development Finance Institutions to participate as lenders in the second round of PPP. But even after CDFIs were included in PPP, only $10 billion was “set aside” by the Treasury to provide loans (out of more than $500 billion).

Despite the late start and low capitalization, CDFIs were far more successful at providing PPP loans to businesses in low- and moderate-income communities, which are more likely to be women- and minority-owned businesses. The populations that CDFIs serve are 85% low-income, 58% people of color, 48% women and 26% rural, according to figures from the Opportunity Finance Network.

The numbers are clear: while 27% of all PPP loans went to low- and moderate-income communities, for us that number is 71%.

The second most important lesson learned is that CDFIs and nontraditional lending institutions are better able to reach nonprofit businesses. Nonprofits are not usually thought of as small businesses, but that is in fact what most of them are—mission-driven employers of people who provide essential services.

The number of jobs created by U.S. nonprofits has grown by 18.6% since 2007—three times faster than the country’s for-profit businesses, according to a recent study by Johns Hopkins University. Nonprofits now account for the third-largest employment sector in the U.S. The same report outlined the difficulties nonprofits experienced accessing PPP loans. It is unclear how many nonprofits received PPP loans through CDFIs, but for the one that I run, nonprofits accounted for 53% of our total PPP portfolio.

Our Delaware nonprofit PPP initiative is a prime example. In the first round of PPP, few if any nonprofits in the entire state secured a loan. Working with our longtime partners there, Discover Bank and the Longwood Foundation (a DuPont-backed philanthropy), we put together a special credit facility on the fly targeted to Delaware’s nonprofit sector. This resulted in 62 PPP loans worth more than $8.8M going to nonprofits in the state, which saved 1,500 jobs largely in low- and moderate-income communities.

With dire predictions of small-business loss across the country and unemployment concentrated in disadvantaged neighborhoods, the next recovery bill needs to include a much larger capitalization for CDFIs to reach as many small businesses and nonprofits as possible. One could argue that given the struggle that disadvantaged communities have always experienced, a recovery plan going forward should disproportionately benefit these communities.

New York state has created, while still in its infancy, a potential national model, the NY Forward Loan Fund, to address these issues. The state acts as an aggregator of capital from all sources—including big banks, small banks, credit unions, foundations and the like—but centers CDFIs as the lenders. The loans are low interest (3% for private business and 2% for nonprofits) and have a five-year payback window. The funds can be used for any working capital business activity, not just keeping people on the payroll.

So as Congress continues to debate the next recovery bill, we have to push for more strategic thinking about how to meaningfully strengthen our small-business sector. To this end, a federal loan program needs to look more like the NY Forward Loan Fund in terms of its low-cost, patient capital that can be used for any business expense.

The federal program, however, should include some percentage of forgiveness for disadvantaged businesses–NY Forward does not–and it must operate on the scale of PPP. But perhaps more important, it has to include the entire financial ecosystem, not just large banks, with well-capitalized CDFIs playing a substantial role.

Daniel Marsh is the president of the National Development Council, a national economic development nonprofit founded in 1969 and headquartered in the city.