Impact Organizations
The PAM Community Investments portfolio includes the following organizations that are helping to alleviate poverty by empowering individuals and communities throughout our world (for more detailed information from the Calvert Foundation, click on the name of the organization):
ACCION International
ACCION Internaitonal is dedicated to reducing poverty and unemployment in the Americas by providing credit and other financial services to microentrepreneurs. An international leader in the field, ACCION is an umbrella organization for a network of microfinance institutions in 13 Latin American countries and 24 U.S. cities. With access to the basic tools of business-capital and training -ACCION's clients can work their own way up the economic ladder, with dignity and self-respect, gaining security and self-esteem, and participating more fully in the economic, social and political life of their communities.
Alternatives Federal Credit Union
Founded in 1979, Alternatives is dedicated to building wealth and creating economic opportunity for underserved people and communities in upstate New York. Alternatives' mission is to provide access to transaction services, savings and community investment opportunities, capital investment in individuals, small businesses and non-profits, and education about capital. Alternatives' loans enable low-income New Yorkers to buy, repair and retrofit homes, start and expand small businesses, obtain education, get better jobs, and achieve financial stability. Thousands of Alternatives members also build financial stability by saving, learning to avoid high-priced debt, and building positive credit histories.
Cascadia Revolving Fund
Cascadia is a nonprofit loan fund that provides capital and technical assistance to entrepreneurs who are unable to access traditional business support and financing programs. It focuses on lending to lower income women- and minority-owned businesses, businesses that preserve the environment, and rural businesses, which have the potential to create family-wage jobs in the Pacific Northwest. Their diverse group of borrowers includes many organic farmers, an alternative arts theater and an employee-owned cooperative of truck mechanics.
Chicago Community Loan Fund
CCLF provides low-cost, flexible financing to nonprofit community development organizations for the revitalization of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods throughout metropolitan Chicago. Eligible loan applicants include nonprofit organizations, joint ventures between nonprofit and for-profit groups, worker-owned cooperatives and housing cooperatives, as well as qualified for-profit development firms. Since its inception in 1991, CCLF has had no loan losses.
Community Reinvestment Fund
By using market-based tools that tap into the resources of the private market to serve public purpose lending (including economic development and affordable housing), CRF provides capital to low- to-moderate-income communities throughout the country, urban as well as rural. CRF methods include buying existing loans from lenders or agreeing to buy loans that meet a set of preset criteria as the loans are made. Alternatively, CRF can provide capital without actually acquiring loans by purchasing the cash flow of a set of loans or making a loan to an organization using its loan portfolio as collateral.
Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises
FAHE is an association of 30 community-based nonprofit housing organizations producing quality-built affordable housing for low-income families in Appalachian Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. FAHE helped to create Appalbanc, a homegrown, locally-controlled and community-supported economic development corporation with combined assets of more than $38 million. Appalbanc offers affordable transitional, rental and homeownership programs to low-income households, access to consumer credit, and capital for small business loans.
Housing Assistant Council
HAC provides seed money loans, technical assistance, program and policy analysis, research, demonstration projects, training, and information services to public, nonprofit and private organizations throughout the nation. Rural areas comprise the majority (99%) of current borrowers' communities. A survey of recent borrowers found the median income of HAC-assisted households is $19,386, more than 40% lower than the national non-metropolitan median of $33,021. Minorities, who have disproportionately high rates of poverty and substandard housing in rural places, comprise 60% of these HAC-assisted households.
Institute for Community Economics
ICE builds a bridge between socially-concerned investors and grassroots organizations revitalizing communities and creating permanently affordable housing for low-income people. ICE's principal lending goes to community land trusts (CLTs), limited equity cooperatives, and community-based nonprofit organizations to finance the acquisition or improvement of land or the acquisition, construction and rehabilitation of housing. ICE is the preeminent source of technical assistance and financing for the growing number of community land trusts throughout the country. Half of CLT residents earn less than 50% of median income annually, 40% are children under the age of 18, and more than 40% of all CLT households consist of single-parents with children.
McAuley Institute
McAuley is a nonprofit corporation that commits itself and its resources to stimulate the creation of housing, the empowerment of local residents, and the restoration of its communities for those who suffer most, especially poor women and their families. McAuley seeks projects that are women-focused and community-controlled and that incorporate community building strategies such as childcare, job training, or personal development. Rooted in the Catholic social justice tradition, McAuley's policy and education programs are designed to counter the disproportionate burden of poverty and homelessness.
Montana Community Development Corporation
Serving five rural counties in western Montana, MCDC is a direct lending organization that brings capital and technical assistance to businesses which provide income opportunities for low and moderate-income residents and help sustain rural communities. Lending programs comprise 70% of MCDC activities, with a focus on micro business development, SBA micro loans, Native American borrowers, community development block grants, and larger loans ($35,000 to $150,000) that create jobs or sustain rural communities
Northern California Community Loan Fund
NCCLF is dedicated to strengthening the economic base of low income and minority communities. Over the last ten years, more than half of affordable low-income housing in San Francisco was built by non-profit organizations. Similarly, community-based groups have been at the forefront of efforts to retain jobs and attract new employers to their neighborhoods. And in much of rural California, nonprofit clinics provide the bulk of medical care.
Rudolf Steiner Foundation
For seventeen years, RSF has been providing capital assistance to not-for-profit organizations, particularly those connected to the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. RSF has loaned over $40 million to credit-worthy, "socially constructive borrowing projects" in the following areas: education, the arts, biodynamic agriculture, health & healing, spiritual development and the environment. Organizations receiving loans range from Waldorf schools and communities serving the needs of the developmentally disadvantaged to an innovative, holistic pharmacy, and a Seva Foundation project that help to restore the sight of 157,000 people in 1998 alone.
Self-Help Ventures Fund
Founded in 1984 with the proceeds from a bake sale, the Self-Help Ventures Fund is a nonprofit revolving loan fund that concentrates its lending on higher-risk, unconventional, and high impact business loans. Self Help has lent nearly $100 million to help North Carolinians buy homes, build businesses and strengthen community resources, including child care spaces, charter schools and supportive housing initiatives. Self-Help's loan losses average less than 1%, comparable to successful commercial banks.
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
UHAB focuses on low-income homeownership, self-help housing, and tenant participation. UHAB emphasizes the values of cooperative development, management, and control. It provides training, technical assistance, housing development services, loan packaging, and loans. In New York City's lowest-income neighborhoods, UHAB has assisted more than 27,000 households become homeowners capable of maintaining their housing as democratically run cooperatives. To date UHAB has made over $15 million in loans.
Vermont Community Loan Fund
VCLF's mission is to build and strengthen Vermont's communities by promoting more equitable access to capital. VCLF provides flexible rate loans and technical assistance for affordable housing, community facilities, and small and micro businesses. VCLF encourages the elimination of discrimination in access to housing, credit, and economic opportunities, and promotes models of ownership.
Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua
WCCN is a nation-wide, non-profit, membership-supported organization that works in partnership with Nicaraguans to promote social and economic justice. WCCN helped to establish the U.S.-Nicaragua Women's Empowerment Project (WEP), which strives to address violence against women in both Nicaragua and the U.S. WCCN also supports the Nicaraguan Credit Alternatives Fund (NICA), which provides disadvantaged persons with better options by channeling funds from socially responsible North American investors to enterprises owned and controlled by low-income Nicaraguans.
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