Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)

MODELS & BEST PRACTICES

Alternatives Federal Credit Union (Ithaca, NY)
www.alternatives.org
Alternatives Federal Credit Union was founded by the Alternatives Group, which brought together community groups, cooperatives, and worker-owned enterprises. It has $45 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.

Bethex Federal Credit Union (Bronx, NY)
www.bethexfcu.org
A small community development credit union based in the Bronx, Bethex 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 to make free loan payments and deposits into their credit union accounts.

Boston Community Capital (Boston, MA)
www.bostoncommunitycapital.org
Founded in 1985, BCC’s community development loan fund has lent out over $40 million, financed 3,800 units of affordable housing, and helped create or maintain over 1,000 jobs that provide a living wage to an underserved population. Through its venture capital fund, BCC also invests directly in companies that provide social as well as economic returns. As of 2003, BCC had over $70 million in assets under management.

Chicago Community Loan Fund (Chicago, Illinois)
www.cclfchicago.org
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 successfully from an initial investment of $200,000 to over $13 million total capital under management. In that time, the fund has closed 108 loans totaling nearly $17.6 million in financing for community development initiatives in 51 communities across the metro Chicago region.

City First Bank of DC (Washington, DC)
www.cityfirstbank.com
Founded as a community development bank in 1998, in its first five years of operation the bank financed more than 1,000 units of affordable housing, helped create or retain over 1,000 jobs, and originated a total of more than $100 million in loans overwhelmingly in Washington, D.C.’s poorer neighborhoods.

Community First Fund (Lancaster, PA)
www.commfirstfund.org
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 $11.5 million in loans, over $10 million of which have been made during the past five years. Since 2004, Community First has helped preserve 800 jobs, develop 73 new affordable housing units, and finance 34,000 square feet of commercial space, primarily in lower income urban neighborhoods.

Community Reinvestment Fund (Minneapolis, MN)
www.crfusa.com
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.

Cooperative Fund of New England (Amherst, MA)
www.cooperativefund.org
Founded in 1975, the Cooperative Fund of New England has grown to have $4.8 million in assets under management. In 30 years, the loan fund has funded $11.8 million to fund 345 loans to cooperative businesses and community-oriented nonprofits around the region, helping to create or retain nearly 5,000 jobs and finance the building or improvement of over 2,000 homes.

Florida Community Loan Fund (Orlando, FL)
www.fclf.org
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.

Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp. (London, KY)
www.khic.org
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.

Lakota Fund (Kyle, SD)
www.lakotafund.org
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.

Michigan Interfaith Trust Fund (Lansing and Detroit, MI)
www. interfaithtrust.org
Founded in 2004 out of the merger of two community development funds that date back to the 1980s, 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. As of March 2007, the Trust Fund had lent $21.9 million for affordable housing, leveraging an additional $73.7 million and helped develop nearly 2,000 housing units. The Trust Fund has also made 47 economic development loans worth a total of $2.4 million, leveraging an additional $16 million, and helped create 192 jobs

Montana Community Development Corporation (Missoula, MT)
www.mtcdc.org
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.

Native American Bank (Denver, CO)
www.nabna.com
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.

New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (Concord, NH)
www.nhclf.org
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.

Nonprofit Finance Fund (New York, NY)
www.nonprofitfinancefund.org
NFF 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. NFF ended 2005 with loans outstanding approaching $50 million and has made over $130 million in loans in the past 25 years. In total, NFF has leveraged more than $750 million of capital investment into its nonprofit clients.

Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund (Minneapolis, MN)
www.ncdf.coop
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. As of 2004, it had $9.5 million in assets.

People’s Community Partnership Federal Credit Union (Oakland, CA) www.pcpfcu.org
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 800 members with assets of more than $2.8 million.

PeopleFund (Austin, TX)
www.austincdc.org
Since its founding in 1994, PeopleFund (formerly Austin CDC) has invested over $10.3 million and leveraged an additional $6.75 million in bank partnership financing for a total investment in the community of over $17 million. People’s Fund loans have helped loan recipients create over 1,100 jobs for low-income residents and approximately 680 childcare slots. Over 75 percent of its business loans have gone to minority-owned businesses.

The Reinvestment Fund (Philadelphia, PA)
www.trfund.com
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 2004, TRF managed over $200 million in capital. To date, TRF financing has helped create or preserve over 10,000 housing units, 10,000 childcare slots, 12,000 charter school slots, and 25,000 jobs.

Self-Help (Durham, NC)
www.self-help.org
Founded in 1980, Self-Help is a community development lender that has provided over $4.5 billion in financing to more than 50,000 homebuyers, small businesses, and nonprofits nationwide. Self-Help has also been a leading in efforts to limit predatory lending policies of check cashing outlets and other “fringe” banking services.

ShoreBank (Chicago)
www.sbk.com
ShoreBank is the nation’s largest community development bank, with over $1.5 billion in total assets. Founded in Chicago, it now also operates in Cleveland, Detroit, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the Pacific Northwest. In 2003 alone, within its targeted areas, ShoreBank lent out $166 million for affordable housing, $51 million for minority and small businesses, and $40 million for non-profit organizations.

SJF Ventures (North Carolina)
www.sjfund.com
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.

Southern Appalachian Fund (London, KY)
www. southappfund.com
The Southern Appalachian Fund (SAF) is a $12.5M community development venture capital fund formed to provide equity capital and operational assistance to qualifying businesses in southern Appalachia. The Fund 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 and the creation of wealth and job opportunities in low-income geographic areas and among individuals living in such areas.