Capital Impact Partners Awarded $1.8 Million through the Treasury Department to Help Communities and Small Businesses Recover from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Written by Michelle Betton on June 15, 2021. Posted in Press Release

June 15, 2021 (Arlington, VA) – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that Capital Impact Partners was awarded $1,826,265 as part of $1.25 billion in awards to 863 Community Development Financial institutions (CDFIs) to respond to economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The awards were announced today by Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen. The grants will be made through Treasury’s CDFI Rapid Response Program (CDFI RRP).

“CDFIs lift our whole economy up. We know that for every dollar injected into a CDFI, it catalyzes eight more dollars in private-sector investment, meaning that today’s announcement might lead to an additional $10 billion in investment,” said Secretary Janet Yellen.

“We will utilize the RRP award to expand our work and uplift community members, partners, and borrowers,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance.

The CDFI RRP grant funds will be used to support eligible activities such as financial products, financial services, development services, and certain operational activities, and to enable CDFIs to build capital reserves and loan-loss reserves. The CDFI Fund designed the program to disburse the funds rapidly in light of the nationwide economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDFI RRP was authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.

“These awards provide CDFIs with an unprecedented level of flexible capital to help communities across the country take meaningful steps towards recovering from the debilitating economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. “CDFI RRP awards will enable CDFIs to help businesses keep their doors open, help families make ends meet, and help maintain important community facilities during this difficult time.”

Since 1982, Capital Impact Partners has invested more than $2.5 billion nationwide to serve more than 6 million people and to create nearly 40,000 jobs while expanding access to affordable housing, health care, healthy food, education and small business funding.

In April 2021, Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance aligned operations in a new joint enterprise designed to transform how capital and investments flow into communities.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to work as a counterforce to help communities address the now-amplified needs of individuals, families, and businesses. We implemented several initiatives and funds to support the needs of our communities, including:

• CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund: a $25 million fund launched to provide flexible financing for California community health centers and clinics;
• DMV Good Food Fund Innovative Response Fund: launched to provide $100,000 in awards to key partners in order to allow local good food enterprises to reposition and pivot in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the regional food economy;
• 2020 Co-op Innovation Award: provided $100,000 in grants to cooperative organizations expanding knowledge of and opportunities for wealth building and sovereignty through the co-op model, particularly in the face of COVID-19;
• Stay Midtown: made additional rental and relocation assistance available to renters in partnership with Midtown Detroit, Inc through the Stay Midtown program.

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In the First Quarter of 2021, Capital Impact Partners Works to Create Impact Where Communities See Value, Fostering Generational Wealth Building

Written by Michelle Betton on June 10, 2021. Posted in Press Release

June 10, 2021 (Arlington, VA) – After pivoting to face the realities that 2020 laid bare, the first quarter of 2021 for Capital Impact Partners has been about expanding our work to create opportunities for hard-working communities to move onward and upward. Communities were hard-hit by the pandemic, as many of our neighbors were already struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

This year, we are focused not just on ensuring that our communities are resilient and have the ability to build back what has been lost, but that our communities can build systems that help everyone thrive. We are piloting community-centered and community-engaging models as part of our new enterprise with CDC Small Business Finance. We are centering the capital and technical assistance needs of entrepreneurs who will be vital to building economic mobility for communities.

In the first quarter of 2021, Capital Impact’s mission-driven work supported more than 24,000 community members and created or preserved more than 10,000 permanent and construction jobs.

Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance Align Operations Under One CEO to Transform How Capital Flows into Communities

We are excited to announce that Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance have united operations under President and CEO Ellis Carr. This transformative new enterprise is innovating how capital and investments flow into communities to advance economic empowerment and wealth creation.

Through our singular national strategy, we will leverage our combined 80 years of experience, nearly $3 billion in assets, and strong ties to both large financial institutions and community-based organizations to address key issues including the lack of place-based, community-led solutions, and the disconnected supply and demand of capital between investors and communities. 

Worker Co-op Conversions: The Power of Employee Ownership to Foster Wealth Building and Opportunity

This year, we are proud to announce the financing of our first worker co-op conversion with long-time partner Cooperative Fund of New England. This proud new cooperative, Ward Lumber, is another example of the power of worker co-op conversions — when owners sell their businesses to their workers — to maintain and augment wealth and stability within communities. 

Ward Lumber is a 130-year-old business in New York, employing more than 40 workers. When Jay Ward realized that the family business would not pass to his next generation, he and his workers looked for another way to ensure that the business continued. This is an important transaction, not only for the workers themselves, but because the ripple effect of this business closing would have been felt throughout the local economy for years to come. Instead, this effort helps preserve a community pillar for years to come. 

This loan fits within our broader cooperative development strategy, which identifies worker co-op conversion as a model for not only for building wealth for workers and their families, but for supporting the broader economy by ensuring that small businesses owned by Baby Boomers who are retiring do not close all together.

Capital Impact Awarded $1 million to Manage the Nourish D.C. Fund

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded Capital Impact Partners $1 million to manage the newly announced Nourish D.C. Fund. The goal is to foster a food system that provides economic opportunities and access to healthy and affordable food.

Capital Impact Partners Named One of the Best Nonprofits to Work For

Capital Impact Partners was selected as one of the 50 Best Nonprofits To Work For in 2021 by The NonProfit Times, the leading publication for nonprofit managers. In this national program, Capital Impact was 19th overall, and 8th in the medium-sized category.

Ellis Carr Joins the Board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation

We are excited to announce that Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance CEO Ellis Carr is joining the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Programmatic Support for Our Communities

The EDI Program Continues to Expand Community-Centric Real Estate Development

In 2021, we completed the second cohort of our EDI program in the Washington Metropolitan area (DMV) and our fourth cohort in Detroit. So far this year, we have provided training and technical assistance for real estate developers through an online learning series, 17 in the DMV and 19 in Detroit. Each learning series ended with participants presenting Capstone project proposals for development sites in their region.

Advancing opportunity remains among our highest priorities at Capital Impact. We recognize that opportunity in real estate development is about more than just creating opportunities for community-centric developers to participate in the field; it is also about financing those opportunities. As we have provided essential training and technical assistance to developers through EDI, we also launched a $12.5 million fund in 2020 to support projects led by Detroit developers.

Lending Highlights for the First Quarter of 2021

Capital Impact’s nearly $33 million in financing in the first quarter of 2021 spans several states, including California, Michigan, and New York. This effort helped increase access to quality health care for all, create new educational opportunities in communities, address affordable housing needs, and expand cooperative and small business development to help communities prosper.

Working within and becoming of our communities, our social impact in the first quarter of 2021 includes:

Expanding Cooperative Development

Capital Impact financed its first worker co-op conversion, providing a $775,000 loan to support the workers of Ward Lumber, a 130-year-old business in New York, to purchase the business and become worker-owners. This loan preserves the jobs of more than 50 workers. 

Worker co-op conversions, where owners sell their businesses to the workers, are a powerful model for building and holding wealth for workers and for securing the socioeconomic futures of communities. This point has become more underscored as communities have been touched by the instability that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused within our health and economic systems.

Expanding Small Business Development

CDC Small Business Finance — Capital Impact’s new enterprise partner — closed on a $60,000 loan to Crème Brulée, a start-up salon/spa located on Woodward Ave. in the New Center neighborhood. With this loan, Katrina Wilson, Crème Brulée’s founder and a successful tenured salon manager, is able to bring her vision of a “full-service, multicultural, upscale beauty bar that is designed to serve people regardless of their hair texture or ethnicity” to life in Detroit.

Scaling Affordable Housing

Capital Impact closed on $9.3 million in construction financing for Dreamtroit, an innovative combination of affordable housing, retail, event space, recycling, and cultural resources in the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood. The project will redevelop the 3.8-acre former site of the first Lincoln Motor Car Company factory, and will include 81 affordable residential units totaling 38,000-square-feet. In addition, the development will open up 30,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and 100,000 sq. ft. of outdoor public spaces including art installations and educational programming. Importantly, all of the residential units will be affordable to residents earning less than 120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) with 55 of the units affordable to residents earning less than 80 percent of the AMI and 18 of the units affordable to residents earning less than 50 percent of AMI.

Capital Impact closed on a $2.98 million loan to Kercheval East LLC, which will enable the developers to finance the renovation of two existing, vacant, and blighted buildings and the construction of one new building on a vacant lot, creating a mixed-use development in the West Village neighborhood of Detroit. This development will include 15 new apartments, and 3,336-square-feet of commercial space likely to be occupied by a local entrepreneur. Three of the 1-bedroom units will be affordable at 50 percent AMI, five will be affordable at 80 percent AMI, and the remaining will be affordable at 120 percent AMI, adding affordable residential space to this historic neighborhood.

Capital Impact closed a $8.25 million loan to revive two existing and operating apartment buildings, 329 and 381 Holbrook Avenue in the North End neighborhood of Detroit. The loan will provide 138 studio and one-bedroom units with 28 units at or below 50 percent of AMI; 42 units at or below 80 percent of the AMI; and 68 units at or below 120 percent of AMI. The buildings were deemed uninhabitable by the City due to severe deferred maintenance and a total of 65 residents were residing in the buildings. The developer of the project is working with local groups that specialize in housing assistance to identify permanent, affordable and safe housing for the 55 tenants that required assistance. The project will be utilizing Capital Magnet Funds and includes a participation from IFF. This loan will assist with rejuvenation of two underutilized buildings, providing a value-add to the North End.

Increasing Access to Health Care

Capital Impact closed a $5 million loan to support the ground-up construction of a four-story, 48,451 sq. ft. health and outpatient center, which will be owned and operated by St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, a nonprofit safety net hospital. Located in Far Rockaway, Queens in New York City, the development will increase access to primary care, dental and behavioral health services, as well as creating new access to cancer treatment and other ancillary services for the community. It will also increase the patients base from 18,000 to 20,000 and create 50 new jobs.

Though part of New York City, the Rockaway Peninsula is geographically isolated from the rest of the city and lacks sufficient access to medical care; St. John’s is the only hospital serving this community.

Providing High-Quality Education

Capital Impact closed a $2 million revolving line of credit to Citizens of the World Los Angeles (CWCLA) to support operations due to anticipated payment deferrals from the state due to COVID-19. CWCLA operates a network of high-performing public charter schools serving the communities of West Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Mar Vista in Los Angeles, California.

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Second Round of D.C. Co-op Impact Grant Supports Region’s Cooperatives

Written by Michelle Betton on June 8, 2021. Posted in Press Release

June 8, 2021 (Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA) — The Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) and Capital Impact Partners today announced $40,000 in grant awards to four existing and emerging cooperatively owned businesses through the D.C. Co-op Impact Grant. In its second year, the grant advances community development by encouraging the growth of quality jobs, sustainable businesses, leadership development, and asset building through an equitable cooperative model.

“In its first year, the DC Co-op Impact Grant awarded $40,000 to seven local cooperatives in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and helped these businesses pivot, survive, and even thrive during a time of tremendous uncertainty,” said Jennifer Bryant, Wacif Program Manager for Community Wealth Building Initiatives. “This year, as we chart a path to a new normal, the D.C. Co-op Impact Grant mobilizes necessary support for early-stage cooperatives as they create resilient infrastructure and economic opportunity for both their businesses and communities.”

As the Greater Washington region undergoes a period of economic recovery, funding relief is critical to maintaining the resiliency of the region’s small businesses. The D.C. Co-op Impact Grant’s support of cooperatively owned businesses accelerates this reality by providing catalytic capital to attract funders, increasing exposure of D.C.-area cooperatives, and delivering loan-readiness support for early-stage cooperatives. 

“The co-ops supported by the D.C. Co-op Impact Grant fill gaps in their communities, create quality jobs that build economic mobility and assets, provide vital community services like healthy food and home care, and help workers to access the mainstream economy,” said Alison Powers, Cooperative & Community Initiatives Manager at Capital Impact Partners. “As we see an explosion of regional interest in the co-op model, this grant demonstrates that funding can be a catalyst for the local co-op ecosystem.”

The recipients of the D.C. Co-op Impact Grant range from a start-up, worker-owned grocery store in Ward 7 to a collective advocating for the rights of D.C.’s street and sidewalk entrepreneurs. Learn more about the four cooperatives and their visions below:

CareWorks Community Homecare Cooperative will create quality jobs for workers and enhance home care service delivery for residents in Highland Park (Ward 8), a community facing some of the highest chronic health conditions in Washington, D.C. The co-op will be supported by Dynamic Solutions for the Aging, LLC, a health and housing organization located in Ward 8 that focuses on aging and community development. Funds will be used to conduct a feasibility study of the local market and proof of concept for the home care co-op. 

Vendedores Unidos / Vendors United (VU) is a collective, looking to create a cooperative, formed in response to laws penalizing street and sidewalk vendors, including a 90-day prison sentence for operating without a license. Black, African, and Latinx street entrepreneurs face deep systemic barriers, and VU has tirelessly advocated for policy changes to increase the safety and accessibility of street vending. The co-op will ensure fair wages and jobs for vendors, and will provide some of the most vulnerable workers in the city an opportunity to transition out of an informal economy and gain control over their workplace. The funds will be used to formalize the co-op and provide technical assistance, including bookkeeping, conflict resolution, and personal financial literacy.

Deanwood Co-op (name TBD) is a start-up, worker-owned grocery store bringing organic and locally grown foods to the neighborhood, supporting local farmers, and creating jobs for Ward 7’s Deanwood community. The grocery store will be the cornerstone of a community-focused mixed-use development called Deanwood Station, supported by CDC Medici Road. This innovative model will enable members of the community to obtain ownership equity and benefit from the success of a business that they co-own. Funds will support business planning and worker-owner training.

The D.C. Language Co-op will launch in 2021 to provide language access for monolingual, non-English speakers, subsidized services for organizations unable to afford interpretation services, and training and mentorship for bilingual young people pursuing interpretation careers. The co-op will formalize the group currently providing freelance services (recently working at a Vendedores Unidos/Vendors United event), and will deliver professional development opportunities to communities. Funds will support cooperative business infrastructure, planning, and operations.

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Capital Impact Partners Awarded $1 million to Manage the Newly Created Nourish D.C. Fund by Mayor Muriel Bowser

Written by Michelle Betton on May 6, 2021. Posted in Press Release

May 6, 2021 (Arlington, VA) – Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded Capital Impact Partners $1 million to manage the newly announced Nourish D.C. Fund. This fund, part of the $5.2 million D.C. LEAF program, aims to support a robust ecosystem of locally owned food businesses in District neighborhoods by investing in businesses that otherwise struggle to access capital and also promotes health in the city.

“We invest in local businesses because they are the backbone of our economy, they are trusted and valued community partners, and they represent the dreams and aspirations of our residents,” said Mayor Bowser. “We are proud to support entrepreneurs that step up to help us build our economy, and these LEAF grants represent a $5 million investment in our D.C. values.”

Through the Nourish D.C. Fund, Capital Impact will work with a coordinated collaboration of technical assistance providers and lenders with deep roots in the District. The goal is to foster a food system that provides economic opportunities and access to healthy and affordable food.

Capital Impact and partners will leverage this $1 million award to attract an additional $2 million to the fund, expanding its ability to support District food businesses including:

• Deploying at least $3 million of financing 
• Supporting food entrepreneurs’ success with robust technical assistance 
• Awarding at least $200,000 of catalytic grants
• Launching the first Food Policy Innovation Award

“Food systems are critical to the health of communities, and to their economic prospects. Food businesses provide opportunities for improved health and wealth building for many people in the District. Now is the time to expand those opportunities to earn a good wage, work with dignity, and pass down wealth to the next generation, and the Nourish D.C. Fund is an excellent catalyst for that vision for all D.C. residents,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance.

Through the Nourish D.C. Fund, Capital Impact will work with a number of key partners including Dreaming Out Loud (DOL), EatsPlace, the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), and the Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif).

The Fund also represents another effort by Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance, which recently joined their operations and launched a transformative new enterprise to innovate how capital and investments flow into communities. Washington, D.C. is a pilot area of operations along with Detroit and Los Angeles.

“We are proud to be part of the Nourish D.C Fund.  The combination of our small business lending expertise alongside Capital Impact’s longtime local community development work will help us drive greater change within D.C. communities.  This effort showcases the magnified impact we are capable of through our new enterprise with Capital Impact and our joint commitment to supporting the D.C. community and beyond,” said CDC Small Business Finance’s Chief External Affairs Officer Robert Villarreal.

How Nourish D.C. Will Invest in Local Food Entrepreneurs

Nourish D.C. will increase technical assistance, provide catalytic grants, and lending products to enterprises throughout the District, with a focus on businesses which have encountered barriers to accessing the technical assistance and capital needed to grow and thrive. 

These ranges will allow the Nourish D.C. Fund to meet the needs of food enterprises across the value chain (i.e. from small-batch processing where needs might be smaller to retail grocery where needs might be larger) and across life cycles of a business (i.e. from start-up where needs might be smaller to expansion where needs might be larger). Technical assistance delivery models may include one-on-one consulting; short-format seminars/webinars; access to a kitchen incubator; mentoring; and multi-day, cohort-based intensive training.

Through these tools, Nourish D.C. will increase entrepreneurs’ business acumen and capital readiness and will complement other District programs providing grants and resources  such as the Neighborhood Prosperity Fund (NPF), the Great Streets Program, and the D.C. Capital Connector. 

Creating an Ecosystem of Impact

D.C. LEAF incorporates three separate programs to support local entrepreneurs including: the Neighborhood Prosperity Fund, the Nourish DC Fund, and the Locally Made Manufacturing Grant Program.

A number of graduates of Capital Impact’ Partners’ EDI program were named as awardees during this announcement:

• Thomas Houston’s Medici Road, Inc. received a $500,000 Neighborhood Prosperity Fund Grant for his development at 4726 Sheriff Road, NE,  which includes a community operated grocery store, coworking offices, and headquarters for Medici Road.   
• Babatunde Oloyede’s Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, Inc. received a $300,000 Neighborhood Prosperity Fund Grant for the development of the Prosperity HUB. This project consists of a community culinary kitchen including catering and event space, retail Grab-N-Go Café, market, and makerspace showroom, and a small business incubator and service center with optional back-office support services.
• D.C. Central Kitchen, Inc., which is being supported by graduates Diarra and Alexis McKinney of Rosewood Strategies, received a $340,000 Neighborhood Prosperity Fund Grant for the development of a 36,000 sq. ft. commercial facility on Buzzard Point that will play a catalytic role in the completion and opening of a retail café, production kitchen, and related office space.

To learn more about these funds and programs, read the D.C. government press release. 

Capital Impact’s Long-standing Investments in the Washington Metro Area

Capital Impact has extensive experience supporting businesses that improve local food systems, including more than ten years of experience managing good food funds in California and Michigan. Our food systems work has been specifically designed to build and support communities in need of healthy, affordable food and economic opportunities. Initiatives we have supported include the Michigan Good Food Fund, the California Freshworks Fund, the California Community Grocers Fund, and the DMV Good Food Fund Innovative Response Fund. 

In addition to supporting local businesses, Capital Impact has played an integral role in expanding and preserving affordable housing in Washington, D.C. as the fund manager of the DHCD Preservation Fund. First selected to manage the fund in 2018, Capital Impact has leveraged funding from the D.C. government to deploy low-cost and flexible financing to private nonprofit and mission-driven for-profit developers that are working with D.C. residents to preserve their housing. A unique aspect of the fund is how it supports the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). TOPA gives residents of for-sale, multifamily, residential properties the right of first refusal to buy their properties, allowing them to work with mission-driven developers to purchase the buildings, maintaining affordable rents.

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Capital Impact Partners Selected Among 2021 Best Nonprofits to Work For by NonProfit Times

Written by Michelle Betton on April 12, 2021. Posted in Press Release

April 12, 2021 (Arlington, VA) – Capital Impact Partners was selected as one of the 50 Best Nonprofits To Work For in 2021 by the NonProfit Times, the leading publication for nonprofit managers. In this national program, Capital Impact was 19 overall, and 8th in the medium-sized category which made up half of this year’s list. The company is one of only three Community Development Financial Institutions to make this list.

The publication partnered with Best Companies Group to identify nonprofit organizations that have excelled in creating quality workplaces. This survey and awards program is designed to identify and recognize the 50 best employers in the nonprofit industry.

“Since 1982, the mission-driven team at Capital Impact has dedicated itself to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with communities to foster good health, economic opportunity, and interconnectedness,” said Kim Dorsett, Chief Human Resources Officer at Capital Impact Partners. “We are humbled that the NonProfit Times has recognized the strong culture and passionate team I get to work with every day.”

Nonprofits from across the United States entered a two-part survey process to determine Best Nonprofits To Work For. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated organization’s workplace policies, practices, and demographics. The second part consisted of a survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation.

Participating nonprofits go through a battery of surveys, including employees, managers, and outside vendors. There are 78 questions within eight categories that make up the Employee Benchmark Report (EBR). The medium-sized company category was the most competitive, representing nearly half of the entire list.

Key categories used to choose the leading organizations included Leadership and Planning, Pay and Benefits, Culture and Communications, Work Environment, and Overall Engagement.

A Strong Culture Focused on Personal Wellness

“We embrace the theory of eight dimensions of personal wellness, which usually include emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, and vocational wellness,” noted Dorsett.

The physical threat of the coronavirus pandemic during the past year, alongside the frustration of isolation, have brought emotional wellness to the forefront. Capital Impact Partners responded by offering online yoga and organization-wide virtual meditation classes, as well as physical fitness offerings. The organization also provided ergonomic assessments of home offices.

“We did [the meditation classes] first together so employees know this was a priority supported by the organization, so they would then feel comfortable later when they felt they needed to take advantage of that benefit,” Dorsett said.

A Passion for Investing in Communities That Begins with its Own Team

“‘Bring our whole selves to work’ is a constant refrain you will hear me saying,” said Ellis Carr, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance (the organization that Capital Impact just formed its newest enterprise with). “This includes all of our backgrounds, all of our experiences, the things that make us who we are every day. This is what creates our unique culture and imbues a sense of pride in everything that we do.”

Learn more about Ellis’ vision in this video.

The company offers a suite of benefits to support its employees and their families through life’s various stages. This includes:

• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Paid Holiday and Time Off
• Retirement and Pension
• Health Spending Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Sick and Personal Leave
• Employer-paid Insurance Coverage
• Summer Hours
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Transportation Subsidy
• Telecommuting 

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Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance Align Operations Under One CEO to Transform How Capital Flows into Communities and Drive Economic Growth

Written by Michelle Betton on March 30, 2021. Posted in Press Release

March 30, 2021 (Washington, DC / San Diego, CA) – Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance are uniting operations to launch a transformative new enterprise and innovate how capital and investments flow into communities to advance economic growth.

Leveraging their 80 years of combined efforts engaging with communities and nearly $3 billion in assets, Capital Impact Partners, one of the nation’s leading Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), and CDC Small Business Finance, the nation’s leading mission-based small business lender, are now operating as one under Capital Impact’s current President and Chief Executive Officer Ellis Carr.

Kurt Chilcott will transition from President and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance and continue his support of this vision by serving as Board Chair of both Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance.

Addressing Issues Facing Communities

Ellis Carr will manage this new enterprise under one national strategy designed to drive a holistic place-based approach to community and economic development at scale, addressing issues such as:

• Lack of Place-Based, Community-Led Solutions: Trusted organizations that listen to and value community-led solutions, and offer relevant place-based lending and investment products, and services are currently lacking.
• Disconnected Supply & Demand of Capital Between Investors and Communities: Institutional investors and community organizations are currently disconnected from efficiently leveraging the supply and demand of capital investments to drive real and scalable impact.

“Harnessing our shared values, the power of CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners coming together is how well each organization’s business and unique skill sets complement the other,” Carr said. “Capital Impact Partners has a long track record of really understanding what’s needed in a community, and CDC Small Business Finance has a sustained and accomplished history of small business support in terms of lending and advising. Together we will be able to transform how capital flows into communities across the country.”

Pillars of Change

This unusual coming together between leaders in the CDFI and Small Business sectors is driven by the need to shake-up the traditional tools and approaches.

Several pillars will underscore this strategy:

1. Listen-first approach to understand the unique needs of a community and then engage investors in the conversation to help support custom solutions to drive positive change;
2. Amplify community-led solutions through the delivery of community and economic development assets at scale across housing, health care, education, healthy food, and small business;
3. Serve as market innovators by creating new products and services that fill gaps left by traditional and mainstream financial systems;
4. Collaborate with organizations that center mission in their approach to drive change;
5. Transform capital markets by reinventing how capital flows into communities through the aggregation of investments, structuring and raising of capital, and delivering of investment opportunities that generate both financial and social returns that also meet the needs of communities and investors;
6. Advocate for communities by shaping national, regional, and local policy to create opportunities for the alliance to drive impact

“Bringing together the broad capacities of CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners will allow us to impact communities in tremendous ways,” said Chilcott. “Under Ellis’ leadership, we’ll be able to do things that nobody has ever done before, and really innovate and change the way things are done moving forward, in a way that benefits everyone.”

Combined Strengths and Values Bring Tailored, Unique Opportunities

Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance announced the beginning of their combined efforts in August 2020 with the decision to launch three pilot projects in Los Angeles, Detroit, and the Washington, D.C Metropolitan area. Lessons learned through that ongoing work have informed the broader strategy for aligning as a single team to advance high-touch solutions at scale.

With strong ties to both large financial institutions and community-based organizations, experience delivering a full suite of products and services, and an established position as advocates in Washington, D.C., the new operating model is uniquely suited to unleash solutions for communities.

“A place-based approach means working hand-in-hand with communities and local organizations to change how capital flows into communities,” said Carr. “It starts with understanding the communities’ needs and developing financial products with their input. We use that to drive where the capital goes.”

As an example of how their combined strengths can deliver impact in place, the organizations have collectively lent $1.7 billion in California since 2016 to small business and the health care, housing, and education sectors.

The new strategy will not create a singular, one-size-fits-all model that is replicated across the country, but rather a tailored or “artisanal” approach that brings a focus on place-based solutions that arise from in-depth community consultation. Another differentiator of this new model is an emphasis on being proximate to communities, which is critical for success in understanding the assets embedded in communities.

“We will create a new model that can be used nationwide,” said Chilcott. “At the same time, it will look different in Los Angeles, or Detroit, or Washington, D.C., because the model will be based on community input. Imagine the transformation that can be achieved with that approach.”

Continued Commitment to Small Business, Commercial Real Estate and Facilities Lending

As this strategy evolves, all current, ongoing work by CDC Small Business and Capital Impact Partners will continue unchanged, including CDC Small Business Finance’s working capital lending along with its SBA 504 commercial real estate lending in California, Arizona, and Nevada, as well as Capital Impact Partner’s lending to Federally Qualified Health Centers, affordable housing developments, charter schools, and healthy food retailers.

The organizations will continue to identify and address specific issues in communities at the state, county, and local levels. This includes targeted lending products, capacity-building programs, and investment capital strategically customized to address high-priority local issues.

Unified Leadership Guides New Vision

The unified strategy will be guiding staff and leadership at all levels of the organization.

As of April 1, 2021, Ellis Carr, who has served as Capital Impact Partners’ President and Chief Executive Officer since 2016, will transition to serve as CEO of both Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance under a new, unified management structure.

Current CDC Small Business Finance CEO Kurt Chilcott, who has led the organization over the past 23 years, will transition to serve as Chairman of each board and will continue working with Ellis Carr as the two organizations move forward on this incredibly unique path.

Leadership from both Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance have come together to lead the operations.

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Capital Impact Partners’ Work Throughout 2020 Focused on Helping Communities Maintain Access to Essential Social Services Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

Written by Michelle Betton on March 2, 2021. Posted in Press Release

March 2, 2021 (Arlington, VA) – 2020 was a hard year for people nationwide and globally, especially for communities that were already struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Capital Impact Partners worked throughout the year with our partners to support our communities’ ability to pivot in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus has been on working with communities so that they can build real stability and prosperity. In particular, our alliance with CDC Small Business Finance is a means for us to address the needs of our communities from multiple angles. Through our programmatic work, our lending, and our partnerships, we have and continue to invest in communities to build economic mobility, resilience, and opportunity.

In 2020, Capital Impact’s mission-driven work supported more than 424,000 community members and created or preserved nearly 5,300 permanent and construction jobs.

Our New Alliance with CDC Small Business Finance: Supporting Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Helping Communities Continue Toward Generational Wealth Creation

One of the new developments that will help us support communities to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and augment  for our communities is our alliance with CDC Small Business Finance. Announced in March 2020, our alliance with CDC Small Business Finance — the leading mission-based small business lender in the country — focuses on expanding economic empowerment and wealth creation. This alliance provides CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact with the unique ability to deliver a full suite of lending products and programs that support community efforts to create strong, vibrant, and healthy places of opportunity.

Work has begun on three place-based pilots, in the Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan (DMV) areas. In each community, cross-organizational teams are listening and actively engaging with local community members to understand the problems that are unique to each region, while sharing tools, programs, and services that are strategically customized to address high-priority issues.

Confronting COVID-19 to Support Community Needs

CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund

In October 2020, Capital Impact Partners and The California Primary Care Association (CPCA) launched the CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund, a $25 million fund to support California’s community health centers (CHCs) with flexible financing to cover lost operating revenues and new costs resulting from treating patients who are unable to go to clinics. It is a vital need: CHCs serve one-in-six Californians (including many residents living below the poverty level), but since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCs have seen primary and preventive care visits drop by more than 50 percent, and then needed to ramp up service to support COVID-19 services and vaccination. Loans totaling $5.65 million were closed to eight community health centers in 2020. You can read more about how the Fund supported community health centers across California in the descriptions below. The CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund is made possible through the generous support of several key partners: Alliance Healthcare Foundation, The California Endowment, California Primary Care Association, The California Wellness Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation, and UnitedHealth Group.

DMV Good Food Fund Innovative Response Fund: Preserving Food Security During the Pandemic

Capital Impact launched its DMV Good Food Fund (DMV GFF) Innovative Response Fund early this year, providing $100,000 in awards to key partners in order to allow local good food enterprises to reposition and pivot in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the regional food economy.

Expanding Empowerment and Sovereignty through the Co-op Innovation Award

For six years, Capital Impact has fostered innovation and expansion of the cooperative market through our Co-op Innovation Award. This year, our recipients are change agents expanding knowledge of and opportunities for wealth building and sovereignty through the co-op model, particularly in the face of COVID-19.

Ensuring Affordable Housing Options for Detroit Residents with Stay Midtown

Since 2016, Capital Impact and Midtown Detroit, Inc. (MDI) launched Stay Midtown, to address the housing supply gap for long-term residents living in Detroit’s rapidly redeveloping Midtown neighborhood. During the pandemic, maintaining housing became a priority for individuals and families living with low incomes. In 2020, we made additional rental and relocation assistance available to renters with MDI through the Stay Midtown program. MDI took the lead in assessing the needs of participating households to provide the proper level of assistance.

Supporting Entrepreneurs with COVID-19 Relief Funds

Working with our partners at the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) and the Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif), we helped to channel relief funds through them to support their small business borrowers in Washington, D.C.

Programmatic Support for Our Communities

The EDI program Continues to Expand Community-Centric Real Estate Development

In 2020, we began the second cohort of our EDI program in the Washington, D.C. area (DMV), which is providing training and mentorship for 17 real estate developers through online learning sessions. The fourth cohort of Detroit EDI began in early 2021.

Lending Highlights for the Fourth Quarter of 2020

Capital Impact’s $91 million in financing in 2020 spans several states, including California, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C. This effort helped increase access to quality health care for all, create new educational opportunities in communities, address affordable housing needs, and expand access to healthy food to help communities prosper.

Working within and becoming of our communities, our social impact in 2020 includes:

Scaling Affordable Housing

Capital Impact closed a $5 million revolving line of credit to ROC USA Capital to increase their capacity to finance and support more resident-owned communities nationwide, especially as they begin to expand into California. ROC USA Capital is a nonprofit CDFI and subsidiary of ROC USA, LLC, a nonprofit that helps residents form cooperative corporations to purchase their manufactured home communities from private owners and manage their neighborhoods in perpetuity. 

Through cooperative homeownership, ROC USA supports economic opportunity for communities nationwide. Since its founding in 1982, Capital Impact Partners has used the cooperative model to build power for communities. Our focus has always been on how co-ops can better support communities living with low incomes. ROC USA was formed in 2008 by several leading nonprofit organizations (including Capital Impact).In 2020, and particularly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Capital Impact expanded its efforts to foster cooperative development nationwide, engaging in programmatic initiatives, lending, and policy advocacy.

Capital Impact increased a $2.6 million loan that it previously made to Allied Housing as part of the Bay’s Future Fund by $2.1 million, expanding the original affordable housing project in Hayward, CA from 46 units of affordable housing to 125. At the end of 2019, we provided $2.6 million as part of a $5 million loan with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), to support Allied Housing and Abode Services to acquire a three-acre property in Hayward, CA. The funding will allow for the construction of a 125-unit supportive housing facility, which will focus on formerly homeless persons with serious mental illness or other disabilities. This project aims to build community among the residents, with community rooms and outdoor recreation space as some of the amenities. Importantly, the supportive housing will provide access to a broad array of services, including vocational and employment assistance, primary health and dental services referrals, and comprehensive service plans.

Capital Impact closed a $5 million revolving line of credit to The NHP Foundation, which it will use to fund predevelopment expenses on four affordable housing projects in Houston, TX. NHPF will partner with local community development organizations to create more than 400 affordable rental units. The NHP Foundation is a national nonprofit affordable housing developer that preserves and creates service-enriched housing. NHPF owns more than 7,900 affordable rental units located throughout 16 states, including Texas, offering safe, clean affordable housing with services to families, seniors, single-room occupancy residents, veterans, the formerly homeless, and people living with disabilities.

Capital Impact closed a $300,000 loan to Develop Detroit, Inc. (DDI) that supported the acquisition and preservation of The Lawton Apartments, an existing 38-unit naturally affordable (i.e. unsubsidized) apartment complex in Detroit. DDI used their existing syndicated line of credit, of which Capital Impact is a 1/5th partner, to finalize this deal. All of the tenants in the apartment complex earn 30-50 percent of the area median income (AMI), providing a lifeline of affordable housing in a city that has seen rapid development and rising housing costs

Capital Impact closed on a $2.98 million loan to Kercheval East LLC, a special purpose entity operated by Restoric Properties, which will enable the developers to finance the renovation of two existing, vacant, and blighted buildings and the construction of one new building on a vacant lot, creating a mixed-use development in the West Village neighborhood of Detroit. This development will include 15 new apartments, and 3,336-square-feet of commercial space likely to be occupied by a local entrepreneur. Three of the 1-bedroom units will be affordable at 50 percent AMI, five will be affordable at 80 percent AMI, and the remaining will be affordable at 120 percent AMI, adding affordable residential space to the highly sought after West Village neighborhood.

Increasing Access to Health Care

Through the $25 million CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund launched by Capital Impact Partners and The California Primary Care Association (CPCA), loans totaling $5.65 million were closed to eight community health centers. The CHCs that received loans through this Fund are Herald Christian Health Center, Samahan Health Centers, Queenscare Health Centers, South Central Family Health Center, St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, Tri-State Community Healthcare Center, Universal Community Health Center, and West Oakland Health Council.

Funded through the CPCA Ventures Loan Fund (Capital Impact’s longest-running health care lending initiative), Capital Impact closed a $1 million loan to Bay Area Community Health (BACH) for working capital needs. BACH was formed in 2020 following a merger between Foothill Community Health Center (Foothill) and Tri-City Community Health Center (Tri-City), an existing Capital Impact borrower. The merger creates the largest health center in the San Francisco Bay Area and among the largest in the state, serving nearly 100,000 unique patients annually, and providing a large array of health care services including medical, dental, behavioral health, and optometry. Almost the entire patient population lives with low incomes.

Capital Impact closed a $1 million loan to Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) on California’s border with Mexico. The loan, made through Capital Impact’s CPCA Ventures Loan Fund, enabled Clinicas to pay for equipment, upgrade their Calexico and El Centro facilities, expand capacity, and provide new services. This financing will support a 72,000-square-foot renovation/expansion project. A previous borrower with Capital Impact, Clinicas’ work is high-impact: its 12 sites serve 57,000 patients who work in migrant and seasonal agriculture, and the majority of its patients earn low incomes.

Community Medical Wellness Centers USA (CMWC) received a $1 million loan from Capital Impact to fund tenant improvements and associated costs for newly leased suites at the clinic’s location financed through the CPCA Ventures Loan Fund. As an FQHC in Long Beach, CA, CMWC provides primary care, mental health, case management, HIV prevention and support, and health education services. The added 3,397 square feet in this location will allow for 13 additional exam rooms.

Capital Impact provided a $5.8 million loan to La Clinica Tepeyac in Denver, CO as part of an $18 million New Markets Tax Credit transaction, which will finance the ground-up construction of a four-story mixed-use development. The ground floor will contain a health center and healthy food retailer, while the upper floors will provide 150 units of affordable housing. La Clinica Tepeyac, an FQHC, is one of a few culturally competent providers of health care to the uninsured and underinsured immigrant community in Denver. The new space will help La Clinica expand its client base from 4,000 to 8,000 over seven years.

Expanding Healthy Food Access

With $3.4 million in financing through Michigan Good Food Fund loans from Capital Impact and a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, a 32,262-square-foot former department store in Port Huron, MI will soon become a downtown grocery store. Port Huron’s historic Woolworth’s building will be the site of the second Country Style Marketplace. It was purchased by Michele Jones and Steve Fernandez in 2018, with a groundbreaking this past October. The vacant building is being transformed into 12,000 sq. ft. of market space on the first floor, with three new office spaces and a residential loft on the second floor. As downtown Port Huron is a food desert, the grocery store will provide healthy food options to the area and will create 30-40 new jobs.

Providing High-Quality Education

Capital Impact closed a $3.8 million leverage loan to the Detroit Achievement Academy Foundation as part of a $12.5 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) transaction to construct a new campus for Detroit Achievement Academy (DAA). IFF and Civic Builders also participated in the transaction, with Chase as the equity partner. The majority of DAA’s student population lives with low incomes. DAA is one of Detroit’s best performing charter schools; as a result, it receives far more applications annually than it has available seats. This loan will allow the school to increase its capacity from 185 students to 470 at full enrollment.

Capital Impact closed a $4.25 million loan to refinance the NMTC leverage debt on the Wissahickon Charter School’s Awbury Campus in Philadelphia, PA. Capital Impact partnered with Reinvestment Fund, which made an identical $4.25 million loan to complete the refinancing. Both loans were made as part of the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program (“BGP”). Founded in 2001, Wissahickon Charter School operates two K-8 campuses serving approximately 972 students in Philadelphia, PA. With a majority of its students living with low incomes and a quarter of its students living with disabilities, its holistic educational philosophy seeks to foster a community of learning with an environmental focus that stimulates intellectual, social, and character development.

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Through the COVID-19 Pandemic, Capital Impact Partners Remains Committed to Communities in the First Three Quarters of 2020

Written by Michelle Betton on December 3, 2020. Posted in Press Release

December 3, 2020 (Arlington, VA) – Since early 2020, Capital Impact Partners, our communities across the country, and our partners have been working to pivot in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through this crisis, mission-driven organizations have once again worked as a counterforce to help communities address the now-amplified needs of individuals, families, and businesses. We have worked hard this year with our community partners and borrowers to ensure that communities across the country do not lose momentum on their journey. Through our programmatic work and our lending, we have and continue to invest in communities to build economic mobility, resilience, and opportunity.

In the first three quarters of 2020, Capital Impact’s mission-driven work supported more than 62,000 community members and created nearly 1,500 permanent and construction jobs.

Expanding Wealth Creation with Our New Alliance Partner, CDC Small Business Finance

One of the new developments that will help us work to expand economic mobility for our communities is our alliance with CDC Small Business Finance. CDC Small Business Finance, the leading mission-based small business lender in the country, and Capital Impact have the unique ability to deliver a full suite of lending products and programs that support community efforts to create strong, vibrant, and healthy places of opportunity.

Work will begin through three place-based pilots in the Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan (DMV) areas. In each community, cross-organizational teams will listen and actively engage with local community members to understand the problems that are unique to each region, while sharing tools, programs, and services that are strategically customized to address high-priority issues.

“Our old ways of working have not worked. Creating communities of opportunity will take innovative thinking and collaboration,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners. “Leveraging both Capital Impact and CDC Small Business Finance’s years of experience and proximity to community, we can accelerate solutions to address critical needs at scale.”

Lending Addressing Community Needs

CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund

California’s community health centers (CHCs) are facing significant lost revenue as a result of business disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To bridge this cash flow gap, the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) and Capital Impact Partners launched the $25 million CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund to provide flexible financing for CHCs. It is a vital need: since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCs have seen primary and preventive care visits drop by more than 50 percent, leading to temporary site closures, as well as staff layoffs and closures. CHCs not only serve one-in-six Californians, but also a predominant number of patients who fall below the federal poverty level. The CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund is made possible through the generous support of several key partners: Alliance Healthcare Foundation, The California Endowment, California Primary Care Association, The California Wellness Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation, and UnitedHealth Group.

Programmatic Support for Our Communities

New Cohorts of the EDI Program for Real Estate Developers

This year, we completed the third cohort of our EDI program in Detroit and our first Washington, D.C. area (DMV) cohort, in which we trained and mentored a combined 54 real estate developers through online learning sessions, shifting from in-person sessions as a result of COVID-19. Our second DMV EDI cohort began in November, and our fourth Detroit cohort begins in 2021.

It is now as important as ever that developers who represent their communities are engaged in shaping the future of communities nationwide.

D.C. Co-op Impact Award: Growing Cooperative Businesses 

Nationwide, cooperatives are on the rise to create dignified employment, ownership, and wealth-building opportunities. The Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) and Capital Impact Partners awarded $40,000 in grants to support cooperatively owned businesses through the first D.C. Co-op Impact Grant.

DMV Good Food Fund Innovative Response Fund: Preserving Food Security During the Pandemic

Capital Impact launched its DMV Good Food Fund (DMV GFF) Innovative Response Fund early this year, providing $100,000 in awards to key partners in order to allow local good food enterprises to reposition and pivot in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the regional food economy.

Expanding Empowerment and Sovereignty through the Co-op Innovation Award

For six years, Capital Impact has fostered innovation and expansion of the cooperative market through our Co-op Innovation Award. This year, our recipients are change agents expanding knowledge of and opportunities for wealth building and sovereignty through the co-op model, particularly in the face of COVID-19.

Lending Highlights for the First Three Quarters of 2020

Capital Impact’s $52 million in financing for the first three quarters of the year spans several states, including California, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C. This effort helped increase access to quality health care for all, create new educational opportunities in communities, address affordable housing needs, expand access to healthy food, and create spaces for communities to prosper.

Working within and becoming of our communities, our social impact so far in 2020 includes:

Fostering Community Development

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and families in communities were facing difficult circumstances. The homeless community consistently faces difficulty accessing services to remain healthy and housed. Capital Impact provided a $1.5 million loan to Memphis Union Mission as part of a $23 million project to build their new Opportunity Center, providing critical shelter and meals for individuals battling addiction, and their families. This development will also benefit from Capital Impact’s first Affordable Housing Program grant through the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Memphis Union Mission serves 91.5 percent of people experiencing homelessness in Memphis, TN, providing 124,000 hot meals per year, emergency shelter, substance abuse counseling, and job readiness skills. Its new 61,050-square-foot Opportunity Center will double the number of shelter beds and provide space for comprehensive programming for 2,750 individuals to address the root causes of homelessness and empower and support clients.

Scaling Affordable Housing

The Murray – Hubbard Farms is a mixed-income, multifamily project in Southwest Detroit led by developer W. Emery Matthews. These long-abandoned row homes will undergo a total renovation to become 12 units of modern, efficient housing across 16,404 square feet, including three units that will be offered as affordable housing at 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). Capital Impact provided $2.2 million in loans – in part through our Detroit Neighborhoods Fund – to support the $4.57 million rehab of this historic landmark in the Hubbard Farms Historic District. The project is Capital Impact’s first multifamily project in the southwest neighborhood.

Capital Impact provided a $6.2 million loan for the ground-up construction of 655 W. Willis in Midtown Detroit. This four-story building will feature ground floor retail and 36 new residential units for Detroiters, nine of which will be affordable to individuals and families with incomes equal to or less than 80 percent AMI. The development is led by returning borrower and EDI program mentor Richard Hosey, a developer in Detroit. This infill project will be located in a dense neighborhood within one block of a variety of neighborhood services including a movie theater, restaurants, a community garden, retailers and another Capital Impact financed project, 711 Alexandrine.

Using a $3.9 million loan from Capital Impact Partners through the Washington, D.C. DHCD Preservation Fund, developer Equilibrium Real Estate Investments will acquire a 36-unit multi-family apartment building (1507-1511 19th St SE), located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The funds will support Equilibrium to stabilize the property and upgrade currently vacant units. All of the current residents are living with low incomes. This development will continue to provide affordable housing in the District.

Also in Washington, D.C., Capital Impact provided a $5.2 million loan through the Washington, D.C. DHCD Preservation Fund to support the Colorado Gardens tenant association to purchase its building through the D.C. Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and form a limited equity cooperative. This development will preserve 28 units of affordable housing in an increasingly desirable neighborhood of northwest D.C. All of the households in the building earn 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) or less, with almost 30 percent of the building earning between 50-80 percent AMI. Additionally, the development could also provide residents with access to quality services through partners. By facilitating the creation of a limited equity cooperative, the loan supports an ownership model which Capital Impact believes is critical.

Through our partnership in the Bay’s Future Fund lending initiative, Capital Impact is providing a $1.3 million acquisition loan to HIP Housing to finance the $3.3 million purchase of a fully occupied 10-unit apartment property in Redwood City. HIP’s acquisition of this property preserves 10 units of affordable housing, 100 percent of which will be restricted for 55 years to households with low incomes (60 percent of Area Median Income). Affordable housing is critical in this area, which, due to the city’s proximity to several high-profile tech companies, has a median rent that is nearly twice the national average and the largest unsheltered homeless population of any city in San Mateo County (as of 2019).

Capital Impact closed an $864,000 loan to RGTP Real Estate for Sweeney Lane Apartments, a 10-unit affordable housing development in Austin, TX. The project will provide short-term housing for individuals struggling with homelessness. RGTP will be partnering with a local Austin organization, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO. ECHO manages Austin’s Continuum of Care program. Continuum of Care includes delivering housing and services to meet the specific needs of people who are homeless as they move to stable housing and maximize self-sufficiency.

Increasing Access to Health Care

To acquire its South Tulare Clinic in Tulare, CA, Capital Impact provided Altura Centers for Health with a $1 million loan through the CPCA Ventures Loan Program. Altura provides medical, dental, and behavioral health services to children and adults in Tulare County, serving up to 27,000 patients each year, the majority of whom experience poverty. The acquisition of this property will allow Altura to make this a permanent home for their clients to access a full continuum of care.

Capital Impact provided a $300,000 loan to North Orange County Regional Health Foundation, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Fullerton, California. Financed through the CPCA Ventures Loan Program , the loan will facilitate the integration of a new Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system and purchase updated furniture and equipment. In a community where more than 75 percent of residents experience poverty, quality, accurate health care is vital.

Westside Family Health Center (WFHC) received a $3 million loan through Capital Impact’s Healthier California Fund to finance tenant improvements in a 24,500-square-foot, three-story commercial building in Culver City, CA. WHFC will renovate the space for use as its main clinic and will relocate its existing clinic operations to the new location.

To support The Achievable Foundation’s general operations that were impacted by COVID-19, Capital Impact provided a $500,000 working capital loan through the CPCA Ventures Loan Fund. The Achievable Foundation is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) located in Culver City, CA, who previously utilized the CPCA Loan Program in 2015 after obtaining their FQHC designation. The health center focuses on primary care and supportive services for people with disabilities, and they are the only FQHC in Los Angeles County, and one of a handful across the country, with this overall focus.

Expanding Healthy Food Access

Capital Impact has invested considerably in healthy food systems and enterprises across Michigan through the Michigan Good Food Fund (MGFF), a $30 million public-private partnership loan fund that provides financing and business assistance to good food enterprises that benefit communities across the state. In addition to lending to good food borrowers itself, MGFF works with intermediary lenders like Northern Initiatives to administer loans less than $250,000 to grocery stores, growers, and good food entrepreneurs. To support Northern Initiatives to extend more funding and technical assistance to several food borrowers across the state, Capital Impact provided Northern Initiatives with a $500,000 loan.

Providing High-Quality Education

Capital Impact closed a $2.9 million loan as part of a larger $12 million financing package for the Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts. This loan will help Richard Wright transform its currently leased space into a bright and spacious new high school campus with room to grow, as well as creating space for an early childhood education charter school.

Richard Wright Public Charter School’s dedication to making a difference for its students is clear: its programming for students, including those living with disabilities, has resulted in a 100 percent college acceptance rate.

Capital Impact closed two $3 million Revolving Lines of Credit to Equitas Academy Charter Schools and Ednovate, Inc, both of whom are returning borrowers to the organization.

Equitas Academy is a charter network that serves 1,600 K-8 students in the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ednovate is a charter network that serves 2,100 high school students across five campuses in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The majority of their student populations live with low incomes, are first-generation college-bound, and are English Language Learners or fluent English speakers from Spanish-speaking homes.

Both networks will use the lines of credit to support their cash balances as they continue to expand education to more students in the face of state funding deferrals due to COVID-19.

Marygrove Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that was established to operate and steward the 53-acre Marygrove College campus after its closure in 2019. Capital Impact closed $9 million of New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) financing – as part of a $22 million NMTC transaction – to support the ground-up construction of Marygrove Early Learning Center (“ELC”) in Detroit.

Marygrove Conservancy’s primary objective is to facilitate the redevelopment of the campus as a cradle-to-career, pre-Kindergarten to graduate degree education campus. The newly constructed single-story building will encompass approximately 29,000 square feet of space designed to provide wrap-around services to 144 children (infant to Pre-K) across the income and socioeconomic spectrum. Half of the slots will be federally subsidized through Early Head Start and Head Start programs. The project will create twelve classrooms and will have focused therapy rooms that will include play therapy, health therapy, and sensory rooms.

Capital Impact Partners closed a $1.35 million acquisition loan to CityScape Schools, an emerging charter school network in Dallas, Texas, for the purchase of a vacant building to renovate into an early childhood center. The new center will be specially designed for, and solely serve, Pre-K three year-olds and Pre-K four year-olds. The new building will free up 10 classrooms in their existing space to allow for growth at the K-8 campus.

CityScape has received 10 state distinctions for its academic performance, including in Student Progress and Closing Performance Gaps.

Capital Impact closed a $5,2 million acquisition loan to Green Dot Public Schools California to purchase their Green Dot Ánimo Ellen Ochoa Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. The loan supports Green Dot to provide a permanent home to their 365 students, and the ability to expand over time. The school serves children who experience poverty and homelessness; it has a track record of increasing students’ academic achievement.

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California Primary Care Association and Capital Impact Partners Launch $25 Million COVID Response Loan Fund for Community Health Centers

Written by External Marketing on October 7, 2020. Posted in Press Release

October 07, 2020 (Sacramento, CA/Arlington, VA) – California’s community health centers (CHCs) are facing significant lost revenue as a result of business disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, CHCs are incurring unforeseen costs to implement technology for virtual health consultations. The impacts of the pandemic have been further exacerbated for many CHCs by the wildfires plaguing the state.

To bridge this cash flow gap, the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) and Capital Impact Partners have launched the $25 million CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund to provide flexible financing for CHCs. Fund investors include the Alliance Healthcare Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation, and UnitedHealth Group.

It is a vital need, as CHCs not only serve one-in-six Californians, but also a predominant number of patients who fall below the federal poverty level.  California CHCs provide culturally competent care to the state’s most diverse communities, and serve one in every three Medi-Cal recipients. These residents are also largely impacted by both the health and financial effects of the pandemic.

Applications will be accepted through November 6th, 2020.

“Our more than 1,370 nonprofit members operate on razor-thin margins, often relying on federal program support based on patient visits. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, patient visits severely dropped and are still not back to pre-COVID levels. This has a huge impact on their financial stability and their ability to keep their doors open to serve their communities. The CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund is a critical stopgap measure to prevent unnecessary closures of their operations,” said CPCA President & CEO Carmela Castellano-Garcia.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHCs have seen primary and preventive care visits drop by more than 50 percent, leading to temporary site closures, as well as staff layoffs and closures. CHCs are utilizing already strained budgets for testing and treating COVID-19 patients, purchasing personal protective equipment for staff, and implementing new technology solutions. In a recent poll of CPCA members, 70 percent indicated the need to explore how to create and deploy an emergency cash flow fund that they could access. 

“The global pandemic has magnified the lack of a safety net for our most vulnerable populations,” said Capital Impact Partners’ President and CEO Ellis Carr. “Community health centers are often the only places where uninsured and underinsured patients can access health care. If they must close or reduce services as a result of this crisis, untold millions will be severely impacted. We simply cannot let that happen.”

Key features of the CPCA COVID Response Loan Fund managed by Capital Impact Partners:

• Loans from $250,000 up to $1.5 million
• 3% interest rate
• No payments during the first year, then fully amortizing over 6 years
• Loan will be secured by a general all asset lien. No real estate collateral required
• Each borrower will automatically receive a grant for technical assistance and COVID-related expenses
• No fees associated with loan closing
• Prohibited Uses:
  • New facility development
  • Facility renovations unrelated to patient service in response to COVID-19
  • Refinancing existing debt

Eligible uses include any working capital need resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Uses include, but are not limited to:

• Operating revenue shortfalls
• Telemedicine infrastructure
• Capital and operating costs related to COVID-19
• Minor renovations to support better COVID-19 related care

Eligible Organizations:

• Non-profit health centers – including non-CPCA members – licensed in the state of California under Section 1204 of the California Health and Safety Code are eligible and encouraged to apply. These organizations include but are not limited to, FQHCs, FQHC-Look-Alikes, rural health clinics, Indian Health Clinics, free clinics, etc.
• Non-profit consortiums with a majority membership comprised of the non-profit health centers described above
• Health centers located on land recognized by the United States government as tribal land in California and operated by an Indian tribe recognized by the United States government

Applying organizations must also have been in operation for a minimum of three years and demonstrate negative operational impact resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timeline

Loan decisions will be made in late November with loan funding planned for mid-December.

CPCA and Capital Impact: Long-time advocates for CHCs

This is not the first time that Capital Impact and CPCA have partnered to meet the needs of CHCs during a time of uncertainty. During California’s 2008 budget crisis, which resulted in delayed Medi-Cal payments, Capital Impact and CPCA stepped in with a similar fund to help these facilities meet cash flow needs. In total, that fund supported 52 clinics with $40 million in financing.

In addition, Capital Impact and CPCA have managed the CPCA Ventures Loan Fund since 1998.  This low-cost financing resource was put in place to support health centers in need of construction, equipment and working capital financing. 

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Capital Impact Partners’ CFO Named to 2020 Washington Business Journal Women Who Mean Business List

Written by External Marketing on October 7, 2020. Posted in Press Release

October 7, 2020 (Arlington, VA) – Capital Impact Partners is pleased to announce that Natalie Nickens Gunn, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, has been named to the Washington Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” program. Now in its 17th year, this award honors the region’s most influential business women who have made a difference in their communities and are leaving a mark on the Washington, D.C. area community.

Ms. Gunn was selected for this prestigious award in a very competitive process. According to the Washington Business Journal, this year “we saw a record number of nominations, making the competition one of the toughest our judges have encountered. Hundreds of nominations poured in from exceptional women all over our region.”

The final awardees, leading their organizations through uncertain times, represent a range of sectors, including government, education, hospitality, banking, construction, and nonprofits. The 2020 group includes Mayor Muriel Bowser; Monica Goldson, CEO, Prince George’s County Schools; Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President, AARP Foundation; and Cristina Anteloa, CEO, Ferox Strategies, among others.

“I am honored by this selection and humbled to be included among such a prestigious group of trailblazing women across the region,” said Natalie Nickens Gunn, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Capital Impact Partners. “I hope this award brings attention to the critical work that Community Development Financial Institutions like Capital Impact do in communities across the country.”

As a leader within the CDFI sector, Ms. Gunn continually demonstrates how to be creative and nimble in how Capital Impact raises, manages, and deploys capital for maximum social impact. Highlights of those efforts include:

• Raising and closing $300 million in capital over the past four years to support a variety of community development projects across the country, including the Washington Metro area.
• Overseeing a 108 percent increase in Total Asset Growth, and a 36 percent increase in Unrestricted Net Asset Growth in the past five years.
• Leading the effort to have Capital Impact rated by S&P Global. At the time, Capital Impact was one of the first Community Development Financial Institutions to secure an S&P rating.
• Helping launch the S&P Rated Capital Impact Investment Note. One of the few nonprofit organizations to have a continually offered Note, this product allows institutional and individual investors to earn a financial, as well as a social, return on their investments. To date, Capital Impact has sold more than $160 million in Notes.
• Managing Capital Impact’s membership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. Less than one-half of 1 percent of CDFIs have earned membership with the Federal Home Loan Bank system nationally.

Ms. Gunn has published her experiences launching the Capital Impact Investment Note in the Stanford Social Innovation Review and has been featured in Next City for her ability to connect capital from various sources to support communities nationwide.

In addition to her professional achievements, Ms. Gunn is active in her community. This includes:

• Board of Directors and Finance Committee for Pathways to Housing D.C., Current Chair of the Nominating Committee and Past Chair of the Finance & Budget Committee of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA. Tracing its origins back to 1803, Alfred Street has been a leader among churches and has made significant contributions in education, missions, children ministries, and advancement of women.
• Diamond Life National Member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated and local member of the Northern Virginia Alumnae Chapter, for which Ms. Gunn also served as past Treasurer
• Past Board Vice-President of St. Stephens & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, VA, where she was the ambassador of the JK-12 Independent School and organized various activities and events in support of the school and communities surrounding the school

“I grew up in a military family, frequently relocating to various parts of the United States and overseas. Through those experiences, I gained insight on certain advantages that some communities had over others. That instilled in me a passion to serve my community as a child and has continued into my adulthood. The power to now serve communities nationwide as the CFO of Capital Impact provides an opportunity for something I never could have imagined,” noted Ms. Gunn.

Prior to serving as CFO, she served as the organization’s Controller, and has held senior positions at the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), National Cooperative Bank, N.A. (NCB), Capital Automotive REIT, Host Hotels and Resorts, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A Certified Public Accountant, Ms. Gunn graduated magna cum laude from Hampton University with a degree in Accounting. Ms. Gunn is a wife and mother of two sons in the Virginia Association of Independent Schools System.

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