Loan Appeals

Community Futures Highwood (CFH) is an independent not-for-profit corporation led by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has final authority on all loan decisions and is tasked with ensuring that CFH's clients are served in a fair and professional manner and as such have access to an appeal process.

Appeal Process 

An applicant may appeal a rejected loan application in writing, outlining their reasons for the appeal and including information to support their appeal.

Timeline:

For loans under $30,000, a written appeal must be submitted within three (3) business days of receiving the rejection.

For loans over $30,000 or more, a written appeal must be submitted within seven (7) business days of receiving the rejection.

Internal Appeals:

All loan appeals must be directed in writing to the Executive Director of CFH within the above referenced time frame for appeals as allocated.

Appeals will be considered within 10 business days of receipt.

External Appeals:

Should the CFH Board of Directors (BOD) reject the appeal, a client who wishes to appeal that decision, may pursue an External Appeal. An application for External Appeal must be completed within ten (10) business days in writing from the date of the Internal Review decision being communicated by CFH to the client.

Once the External Appeal has been received it will be forwarded to the provincial CF Network Association (CFNA) who will find a CF office located outside of CFH's region (Southern AB) to review the External Appeal for compliance with CFH's Policies and Procedures and adjudicate the External Appeal. Their decision will be communicated to the CFH BOD. At no time shall the CFNA speak or interact directly with the appealing client, therefore please refrain from contacting the CFNA for this purpose. 

Once an appeal is rejected, a client cannot bring back the same business idea to CFH for funding.

However, the Board of Community Futures Highwood maintains final authority for all decisions.