Chicago Community Loan Fund

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Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) is a social investment intermediary providing low-cost, flexible financing to community development organizations engaged in affordable housing, social service and economic development initiatives that benefit low- and moderate-income families and neighborhoods throughout metropolitan Chicago. CCLF was founded in 1991 by a group of visionary social-investment advocates. Their aim was to create a nimble, flexible nonprofit lender who would fill the community development credit gaps as they emerged across the city and region. In particular, CCLF was created to ensure that Chicagoland community developers (including small and emerging groups) would have a lender to turn to for harder-to-underwrite projects and enterprises. Individual and institutional investors concerned about the social dividend of their investments place funds in CCLF at or below market-rate, creating a pool of loan capital dedicated to improving the lives of people in disinvested communities. CCLF, in turn, re-lends this capital at a rate close to or at prime to finance community organizations' development projects.