logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Community Finance Institutions Successful but Poor

Rick Cohen
April 23, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

April 21, 2010; The Daily Record | Across the nation, nonprofit community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have done much better than TARP-subsidized commercial banks, particularly if you realize that CDFIs work in low-income neighborhoods taking on projects that conventional lenders typically wouldn’t consider.

In Maryland, CDFIs have financed day care centers, affordable apartments, senior citizen complexes, and new businesses. Among the notable are the Enterprise Community Loan Fund in Silver Spring (which helped finance senior housing developed by a church CDC in Northwest Baltimore), Baltimore Community Lending, Maryland Capital Enterprises (in Salisbury, doing business microloans), and Baltimore’s Neighborhood Housing Services.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

CDFIs have a lot going for them—except capital. The number of CDFIs in Maryland has dropped from 22 in 2006 to 16 at the end of 2009. Nationally, CDFIs report not being able to keep up with loan demand because they simply don’t have enough capital for lending. The Obama Administration has increased federal support for the CDFI Fund at the Department of Treasury, which is the nation’s primary source of CDFI funding (through grants and tax credits), rising from $54 million in 2007 to $94 million in 2008, $107 million in 2009, and another $100 million from the stimulus bill.

The increased appropriations have been accompanied by increasing competition among CDFI applicants. Maryland is developing programs to support CDFIs—including programs in the Department of Business and Economic Development and the Department of Housing and Community Development—but they aren’t providing nearly enough capital to meet the housing, facility, and business development demands in lower income neighborhoods. How unusual! A successful program that is just about entirely dependent on the role of nonprofits, and there’s not enough money available for them to function, as the common parlance says, “at scale.”—Rick Cohen

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
Solidarity on Campus: A Faculty Union’s Learnings from COVID-19
Todd Wolfson
Participatory Grantmaking: What Practitioners Have to Say
Kelley Buhles
Remaking the Economy: Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories
Pastor Keith Davis, Steve Dubb, Demetrius Hunter, Julian D. Miller, LeeAnn C. Morrissette and Brielle Wright
Imagining New Worlds: Using Science Fiction to Build a Solidarity Economy
izzy sazak
How to Align Assets with Mission: Small Steps That Nonprofits Can Take
Anna Smukowski
The Best Elections Money Can Buy
Steve Dubb

Popular Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now

Remaking the Economy

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.