Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
Alternatives Federal Credit Union
Alternatives Federal Credit Union was founded by the Alternatives Group, which brought together community groups, cooperatives, and worker-owned enterprises. It has over $51 million in assets. In addition to providing consumer loans, the credit union also operates an individual development account program, a student credit union, and provides business loans. Read more about Alternatives Federal Credit Union ...
Bethex Federal Credit Union
Serving more than 9,000 members, Bethex is a small community development credit union based in the Bronx that has come up with an innovative way of dealing with competition from check cashers: partnering with them to enable customers at their point-of-banking terminals - more than 130 sites across the city - to make free loan payments and deposits into their credit union accounts. Read more about Bethex Federal Credit Union...
Boston Community Capital
Founded in 1985, Boston Community Capital’s community development loan fund has lent out over $200 million, financed 8,500 units of affordable housing, and helped create or maintain over 1,300 jobs that provide a living wage to an underserved population. Through its venture capital fund, the CDFI also invests directly in companies that provide social as well as economic returns. To date, Boston Community Capital has over $93 million in assets under management. Read more about Boston Community Capital...
Chicago Community Loan Fund
Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) provides low-cost, flexible financing to nonprofit community development organizations for affordable housing, commercial development, and nonprofit facility initiatives. Since 1991, CCLF has grown from an initial investment of $200,000 to over $28 million in total capital under management. Read more about Chicago Community Loan Fund...
City First Bank
Founded as a community development bank in 1998, the bank has financed more than 4,700 units of affordable housing, helped create or retain over 2,800 jobs, and, from 2004 to 2007, originated a total of more than $150 million in loans overwhelmingly in Washington, D.C.'s poorer neighborhoods. Read more about City First Bank...
Community First Fund
Founded in 1992, Community First's service area has expanded from its initial base in Lancaster County to a thirteen-county region in south central Pennsylvania with a population of over 3.5 million. To date, Community First Fund has made over $19 million in loans. Community First has helped preserve 1,300 jobs, develop 120 new affordable housing units, and finance 150,000 square feet of commercial space, primarily in lower income urban neighborhoods. Read more about Community First Fund...
Community Reinvestment Fund
Community Reinvestment Fund works to raise capital on behalf of community-development lenders through the secondary market for loans. Started in 1989, the group has injected hundreds of millions of dollars into low-income and economically disadvantaged communities across the country to help stimulate job creation and economic development, provide affordable housing, and construct community facilities. Read more about Community Reinvestment Fund...
Cooperative Fund of New England
Founded in 1975, the Cooperative Fund of New England has grown to have $5.5 million in assets under management. To date, the loan fund has provided $14.7 million to fund 411 loans to cooperative businesses and community-oriented nonprofits around the region, helping to create or retain more than 5,000 jobs and finance the building or improvement of over 2,000 homes. Read more about Cooperative Fund of New England...
Ecotrust
With a focus on creating economic opportunity, promoting social equity, and ensuring environmental well-being, Ecotrust accomplishments include co-founding the world's first environmental bank with now more than $300 million assets and receiving $50 million in New Markets Tax Credits to start the world's first ecosystem investment fund. Since its founding in 1991, Ecotrust has helped create more than $300 million in capital for the people, communities and businesses of the West Coast, including Alaska. Read more about Ecotrust...
Florida Community Loan Fund
The Florida Community Loan Fund made its first loan in 1996 following the completion of a two-year statewide feasibility study which explored the needs for credit and technical assistance among Florida's nonprofit organizations and the availability of political and financial support. Today the Loan Fund boasts a ten-year track record of successful statewide operations and has made more than $ 12 million in loans to help finance 74 community-based projects. Read more about Florida Community Loan Fund...
Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp.
KHIC was founded in 1968 to promote community economic development in southeastern Kentucky. In 1972, it became the country's first community development venture capital fund, a fund which has now grown to $40 million. Over the years KHIC has helped provide $178 million in financing to 220 businesses, thereby helping to create 9,900 jobs. Read more about Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp....
Lakota Fund
Founded in 1985, the Lakota Fund has promoted economic revitalization on the Pine Ridge Reservation community. The fund has financed the construction of affordable housing, made micro-enterprise and small business loans supporting the employment of over 500 people and has developed an Individual Development Account matched-savings program. Read more about Lakota Fund...
Montana Community Development Corporation
Founded in 1989, Montana CDC serves, despite its “CDC” name, more as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), with a focus on small business lending in five counties of western Montana. It also operates a Native American Fund (which makes micro loans to Native American-led businesses) and a Child Care Loan fund that helps childcare businesses expand facilities and improve programs. Between July 2004 and February 2005 alone, it disbursed over $500,000 in loan financing. Read more about Montana Community Development Corporation...
Native American Bank
Native American Bank was founded in 2001 by a group of Tribal Nations and Alaska Native Corporations. The Bank aims to (1) serve as an engine for Indian economic development, (2) establish a significant Indian presence in the financial marketplace, and (3) project the growing economic power of tribes and Indian businesses onto the national scene. Read more about Native American Bank...
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund was the first statewide community development loan fund in the country. NHCLF is nationally renown for its Manufactured Housing Park Program, a loan product that has enabled mobile home residents to purchase mobile home parks and run them as cooperatives. Read more about New Hampshire Community Loan Fund...
Nonprofit Finance Fund
The Nonprofit Finance Fund was established in 1980 and is now one of the nation's leading community development financial institutions (CDFIs), serving nonprofits in the Washington, D.C. area, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, New Jersey, New England, nationwide through an alliance program, the Philadelphia area, Detroit, and Chicago.To date, the organization has loans outstanding approaching $50 million and has made over $200 million in loans in the past 30 years. In total, NFF has leveraged more than $1 billion of capital investment into its nonprofit clients. Read more about Nonprofit Finance Fund...
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund is a member-owned and governed community development loan fund. In 2004, it also started a separate credit union to finance further expansion. Structured as a co-op, NCDF helps finance producer, worker, consumer, and housing cooperatives across the upper Midwest. To date, it has $12 million in assets. Read more about Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund...
Opportunity Resource Fund
Created in 2004 out of a merger of two community development funds that date back to the 1980s, the Opportunity Resource Fund (formerly named the Michigan Interfaith Trust Fund) offers a variety of loan products, and underwrites projects for affordable housing, economic development, pre-development, and mixed-use development throughout the state of Michigan. To date, the fund has lent $21.9 million for affordable housing, leveraging an additional $73.7 million, and has helped develop nearly 2,000 housing units. Read more about Opportunity Resource Fund...
People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union
Chartered in 2000 and open since 2001, People's Community Partnership is a community development credit union that is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or volunteers in the West Oakland flatlands. It is also the first banking institution to operate in West Oakland since the 1960s, providing area residents with an alternative to expensive check-cashing services and payday loans. Members can open an account with as little as a $25 and a one-time $5 fee. It has grown to have more than 2500 members with assets of more than $4.5 million. Read more about People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union...
PeopleFund
Since PeopleFund's inception in 1994, they’ve dispersed $24,383,280, have given 385 loans of up to $250,000, and have assisted in purchasing 142 homes. Women and minority-owned small businesses and non-profits make up 75% of their clients. PeopleTrust, an offshoot of PeopleFund, provides shared-equity programs that assist working families build wealth, secure affordable housing, and preserves affordable housing housing stock. Through PeopleInvest, a social investment strategy, low-interest loans from $10,000 to $1,000,000 are provided to local small businesses. Read more about PeopleFund...
Self-Help
Founded in 1980, Self-Help is a community development lender that has provided $6.08 billion through 74,548 loans to homebuyers, small businesses, and nonprofits nationwide. Self-Help has also been a leader in efforts to limit predatory lending policies of check cashing outlets and other "fringe" banking services. Read more about Self-Help...
SJF Ventures
SJF Ventures (originally known as the “Sustainable Job Fund”) is a community development venture capital fund. To date, SJF has invested $10.3 million in 18 companies, helping to retain 815 jobs and create an additional 702 jobs. Investment in a company is contingent on the company signing a covenant, with mutually agreed upon goals regarding job creation, facility location, and environmental impact. Read more about SJF Ventures ...
Southern Appalachian Fund
The Southern Appalachian Fund (SAF) is a $12.5 million community development venture capital fund formed to provide equity capital and operational assistance to qualifying businesses in southern Appalachia. SAF focuses specifically on companies in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Appalachian counties of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and makes investments in qualifying firms in amounts that range from $200,000 to $600,000. Through its investments, the fund aims to promote economic development, encourage wealth creation and increase job opportunities for individuals living in low-income geographic areas.
The Reinvestment Fund
Founded in 1985, TRF is an umbrella group that oversees a host of community development loan and venture funds that invest in the Mid-Atlantic region. As of 2007, TRF has managed over $700 million in capital. To date, TRF financing has helped create or preserve over 16,000 housing units, 420 businesses, 22,000 charter school slots, 35,000 jobs and 1.53 million MWh of clean energy, or enough power to run 150,000 homes for a year. Read more about The Reinvestment Fund...
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
Alternatives Federal Credit Union
Alternatives Federal Credit Union was founded by the Alternatives Group, which brought together community groups, cooperatives, and worker-owned enterprises. It has over $51 million in assets. In addition to providing consumer loans, the credit union also operates an individual development account program, a student credit union, and provides business loans. Read more about Alternatives Federal Credit Union ...
Bethex Federal Credit Union
Serving more than 9,000 members, Bethex is a small community development credit union based in the Bronx that has come up with an innovative way of dealing with competition from check cashers: partnering with them to enable customers at their point-of-banking terminals - more than 130 sites across the city - to make free loan payments and deposits into their credit union accounts. Read more about Bethex Federal Credit Union...
Boston Community Capital
Founded in 1985, Boston Community Capital’s community development loan fund has lent out over $200 million, financed 8,500 units of affordable housing, and helped create or maintain over 1,300 jobs that provide a living wage to an underserved population. Through its venture capital fund, the CDFI also invests directly in companies that provide social as well as economic returns. To date, Boston Community Capital has over $93 million in assets under management. Read more about Boston Community Capital...
Chicago Community Loan Fund
Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) provides low-cost, flexible financing to nonprofit community development organizations for affordable housing, commercial development, and nonprofit facility initiatives. Since 1991, CCLF has grown from an initial investment of $200,000 to over $28 million in total capital under management. Read more about Chicago Community Loan Fund...
City First Bank
Founded as a community development bank in 1998, the bank has financed more than 4,700 units of affordable housing, helped create or retain over 2,800 jobs, and, from 2004 to 2007, originated a total of more than $150 million in loans overwhelmingly in Washington, D.C.'s poorer neighborhoods. Read more about City First Bank...
Community First Fund
Founded in 1992, Community First's service area has expanded from its initial base in Lancaster County to a thirteen-county region in south central Pennsylvania with a population of over 3.5 million. To date, Community First Fund has made over $19 million in loans. Community First has helped preserve 1,300 jobs, develop 120 new affordable housing units, and finance 150,000 square feet of commercial space, primarily in lower income urban neighborhoods. Read more about Community First Fund...
Community Reinvestment Fund
Community Reinvestment Fund works to raise capital on behalf of community-development lenders through the secondary market for loans. Started in 1989, the group has injected hundreds of millions of dollars into low-income and economically disadvantaged communities across the country to help stimulate job creation and economic development, provide affordable housing, and construct community facilities. Read more about Community Reinvestment Fund...
Cooperative Fund of New England
Founded in 1975, the Cooperative Fund of New England has grown to have $5.5 million in assets under management. To date, the loan fund has provided $14.7 million to fund 411 loans to cooperative businesses and community-oriented nonprofits around the region, helping to create or retain more than 5,000 jobs and finance the building or improvement of over 2,000 homes. Read more about Cooperative Fund of New England...
Ecotrust
With a focus on creating economic opportunity, promoting social equity, and ensuring environmental well-being, Ecotrust accomplishments include co-founding the world's first environmental bank with now more than $300 million assets and receiving $50 million in New Markets Tax Credits to start the world's first ecosystem investment fund. Since its founding in 1991, Ecotrust has helped create more than $300 million in capital for the people, communities and businesses of the West Coast, including Alaska. Read more about Ecotrust...
Florida Community Loan Fund
The Florida Community Loan Fund made its first loan in 1996 following the completion of a two-year statewide feasibility study which explored the needs for credit and technical assistance among Florida's nonprofit organizations and the availability of political and financial support. Today the Loan Fund boasts a ten-year track record of successful statewide operations and has made more than $ 12 million in loans to help finance 74 community-based projects. Read more about Florida Community Loan Fund...
Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp.
KHIC was founded in 1968 to promote community economic development in southeastern Kentucky. In 1972, it became the country's first community development venture capital fund, a fund which has now grown to $40 million. Over the years KHIC has helped provide $178 million in financing to 220 businesses, thereby helping to create 9,900 jobs. Read more about Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp....
Lakota Fund
Founded in 1985, the Lakota Fund has promoted economic revitalization on the Pine Ridge Reservation community. The fund has financed the construction of affordable housing, made micro-enterprise and small business loans supporting the employment of over 500 people and has developed an Individual Development Account matched-savings program. Read more about Lakota Fund...
Montana Community Development Corporation
Founded in 1989, Montana CDC serves, despite its “CDC” name, more as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), with a focus on small business lending in five counties of western Montana. It also operates a Native American Fund (which makes micro loans to Native American-led businesses) and a Child Care Loan fund that helps childcare businesses expand facilities and improve programs. Between July 2004 and February 2005 alone, it disbursed over $500,000 in loan financing. Read more about Montana Community Development Corporation...
Native American Bank
Native American Bank was founded in 2001 by a group of Tribal Nations and Alaska Native Corporations. The Bank aims to (1) serve as an engine for Indian economic development, (2) establish a significant Indian presence in the financial marketplace, and (3) project the growing economic power of tribes and Indian businesses onto the national scene. Read more about Native American Bank...
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund was the first statewide community development loan fund in the country. NHCLF is nationally renown for its Manufactured Housing Park Program, a loan product that has enabled mobile home residents to purchase mobile home parks and run them as cooperatives. Read more about New Hampshire Community Loan Fund...
Nonprofit Finance Fund
The Nonprofit Finance Fund was established in 1980 and is now one of the nation's leading community development financial institutions (CDFIs), serving nonprofits in the Washington, D.C. area, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, New Jersey, New England, nationwide through an alliance program, the Philadelphia area, Detroit, and Chicago.To date, the organization has loans outstanding approaching $50 million and has made over $200 million in loans in the past 30 years. In total, NFF has leveraged more than $1 billion of capital investment into its nonprofit clients. Read more about Nonprofit Finance Fund...
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund is a member-owned and governed community development loan fund. In 2004, it also started a separate credit union to finance further expansion. Structured as a co-op, NCDF helps finance producer, worker, consumer, and housing cooperatives across the upper Midwest. To date, it has $12 million in assets. Read more about Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund...
Opportunity Resource Fund
Created in 2004 out of a merger of two community development funds that date back to the 1980s, the Opportunity Resource Fund (formerly named the Michigan Interfaith Trust Fund) offers a variety of loan products, and underwrites projects for affordable housing, economic development, pre-development, and mixed-use development throughout the state of Michigan. To date, the fund has lent $21.9 million for affordable housing, leveraging an additional $73.7 million, and has helped develop nearly 2,000 housing units. Read more about Opportunity Resource Fund...
People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union
Chartered in 2000 and open since 2001, People's Community Partnership is a community development credit union that is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or volunteers in the West Oakland flatlands. It is also the first banking institution to operate in West Oakland since the 1960s, providing area residents with an alternative to expensive check-cashing services and payday loans. Members can open an account with as little as a $25 and a one-time $5 fee. It has grown to have more than 2500 members with assets of more than $4.5 million. Read more about People's Community Partnership Federal Credit Union...
PeopleFund
Since PeopleFund's inception in 1994, they’ve dispersed $24,383,280, have given 385 loans of up to $250,000, and have assisted in purchasing 142 homes. Women and minority-owned small businesses and non-profits make up 75% of their clients. PeopleTrust, an offshoot of PeopleFund, provides shared-equity programs that assist working families build wealth, secure affordable housing, and preserves affordable housing housing stock. Through PeopleInvest, a social investment strategy, low-interest loans from $10,000 to $1,000,000 are provided to local small businesses. Read more about PeopleFund...
Self-Help
Founded in 1980, Self-Help is a community development lender that has provided $6.08 billion through 74,548 loans to homebuyers, small businesses, and nonprofits nationwide. Self-Help has also been a leader in efforts to limit predatory lending policies of check cashing outlets and other "fringe" banking services. Read more about Self-Help...
SJF Ventures
SJF Ventures (originally known as the “Sustainable Job Fund”) is a community development venture capital fund. To date, SJF has invested $10.3 million in 18 companies, helping to retain 815 jobs and create an additional 702 jobs. Investment in a company is contingent on the company signing a covenant, with mutually agreed upon goals regarding job creation, facility location, and environmental impact. Read more about SJF Ventures ...
Southern Appalachian Fund
The Southern Appalachian Fund (SAF) is a $12.5 million community development venture capital fund formed to provide equity capital and operational assistance to qualifying businesses in southern Appalachia. SAF focuses specifically on companies in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Appalachian counties of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and makes investments in qualifying firms in amounts that range from $200,000 to $600,000. Through its investments, the fund aims to promote economic development, encourage wealth creation and increase job opportunities for individuals living in low-income geographic areas.
The Reinvestment Fund
Founded in 1985, TRF is an umbrella group that oversees a host of community development loan and venture funds that invest in the Mid-Atlantic region. As of 2007, TRF has managed over $700 million in capital. To date, TRF financing has helped create or preserve over 16,000 housing units, 420 businesses, 22,000 charter school slots, 35,000 jobs and 1.53 million MWh of clean energy, or enough power to run 150,000 homes for a year. Read more about The Reinvestment Fund...