Rise’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) is launching at a time when the demand for flexible, responsive capital in the St. Louis community development sector continues to grow. Rise CDFI supports Rise’s existing work in neighborhoods where appraisal gaps constrain traditional lenders, and a lack of coordinated community-driven plans and investment strategies have led to inefficient and insufficient development while perpetuating the racial wealth gap.
Colleen Hafner, Rise’s CDFI Director
Rise’s Experience With Lending
This is not Rise’s first experience with lending- since 1993, Rise has operated its Predevelopment Loan Fund. Most nonprofit community-based organizations do not have the ability to pay the upfront costs necessary to get a development project to the point where construction loan funding becomes available. To address this need, Rise offers predevelopment loans to nonprofit neighborhood organizations, enabling them to start planning and building toward a vision of improved neighborhood vitality.
Operation of Rise CDFI
Colleen Hafner, formerly a Project Manager at Rise, has stepped into a new role as Rise’s CDFI Director. She has over 14 years of experience in the housing and community development field. Colleen is passionate about increasing access to capital as a way to build a more equitable St. Louis community for all.
Rise CDFI is initially offering two funds providing three loan products as well as an array of developmental services to our borrowers. These two funds are the Minority Contractor Loan Fund and the Small Developer Loan Fund.
Minority Contractor Loan Fund
The Minority Contractor Loan offers term loans and lines of credit tied to specific construction contracts. Currently, Rise originates these loans at 6% interest with origination fees of 100 basis points. In general, no other fees (application fees, etc.) are charged. We will make loans as small as $20,000, and tailor the amount and term length to the specific contract requirements, timelines, and cash flow needs of the borrower.
Rise CDFI pairs all loans with development services to enhance the borrower’s short-term and long-term business goals and financial success. Rise has a significant history of providing capacity-building technical assistance to small nonprofit businesses. These services include staff and board development, financial management, strategic planning, and much more. Building off this framework, Rise provides and coordinates services to minority- and women-owned contractor borrowers, meeting each firm where they are and aligning capital with the tools to grow.
Small Developer Loan Fund
The Small Developer Loan Fund builds upon Rise’s long-time experience lending capital for predevelopment expenses by adding construction lending for neighborhood-based residential and mixed-use development. They see this product as meeting a need for affordable loans that support the rehab of “naturally occurring affordable housing.” That is unsubsidized residential development in neighborhoods where acquisition/rehab (particularly for the re-use of vacant property) can be done at a range of affordability on a purely market basis. They can also lend on developments using subsidies such as CDBG, HOME, and Affordable Housing Trust Funds.
Rise’s unique development expertise means thoughtful and realistic loan underwriting and providing borrowers with the capacity-building tools they desire to grow their business and increase their impact in a given community. The ultimate goal is to build wealth for, by, and within a neighborhood – leaving each block in a stronger place than before.
Rise CDFI is a member of the St. Louis CDFI Coalition, a partnership among eight CDFIs that offer an array of capital, development, and consulting services and share a common mission to empower a comprehensively healthy St. Louis community through support for nonprofits, small businesses, and communities facing disinvestment.
This story was adapted and reposted from the Rise website.
