Our Investments

SCF invested in FINCA International (FI) shortly after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 and to provide loan capital for micro-businesses in Haiti to support recovery efforts. Loans averaging $170 are issued to extremely poor women individually or as part of “village banking group loans” where members’ loan performance is tied together. Haiti is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world—more than half of its population lives on less than $2 a day. Haiti was one of FINCA’s highest risk and most underfunded Affiliate micro-loan programs given its long-standing political instability, faltering economy, and the destruction and destabilization caused by the earthquake in 2010.

SCF provided $66,000 in seed capital for its $100,000 prototype mortgage fund. The Habitat Michigan Fund provides mortgages to people earning 60%-80% below AMI and the ACMP used a securitization structure to vastly reduce capital raising needs and to expedite the payback mortgage funds to Habitat Michigan Fund to 30-90 days, as opposed to the standard 20 to 30-year mortgage payback structure. This facilitates rapid re-use of funds for further home building and purchase activity. ACMP partners included Cinnaire and Michigan State Housing Development Authority and SCF required a matching investment of $34,000 from Habitat for Humanity Michigan.

Hamilton Hills is a two-phase development of an 88-unit LIHTC affordable multifamily community with community spaces, located on 3.6 acres in Atlanta, GA. The final development provides one to three bedrooms priced at 50%-60% of area median income, helping to meet the region’s growing demand for affordable housing, especially those serving lower income families. SCF invested in the second phase of the project, providing site acquisition capital to the project developer Gorman & Company, a nationally recognized LIHTC affordable housing developer. The project moved successfully into its construction phase, with SCF exiting the project in June of 2025.

Hope Credit Union (HCU) is a CDFI designated as a low-income serving credit union by the National Credit Union Administration. HCU’s core function is to provide affordable credit and to advance financial equity for low-income and underserved communities. HCU works in some of the highest poverty areas of the country—75% of their branches are located in high-poverty areas and 2/3 of all nationally-identified persistent poverty counties exist within their service area. HCU delivers on its mission: 47% of its business loans are made to minority- and women-led businesses; 67% of consumer loans were made in economically-distressed areas; 87% of home mortgages were made to first-time homeowners; and, their loans have resulted in food becoming available for purchase for 14,000 people living in food deserts. SCF’s investment provides general support to the organization to grow its array of critical loan programs benefitting low-income and underserved populations.

This program provides micro- to small-business loans of up to $25,000, deployed across LiftFund’s 13-state southern region service area. LiftUp uses LiftFund’s unique MMS risk modeling platform, which is based on over 10 years of loan performance data, to assess borrower eligibility. This program targets to serve emerging small businesses that may have less track record and sophisticated systems and likely have difficulties producing traditional forms of documentation needed to complete a loan process. The LiftUp program was funded by SCF’s earlier loan (2017-2019) and was created as an outgrowth of its prototype Promise Loan program developed to serve clients that LiftFund was unable to service using its existing platform of loan programs.

At the same time the LiftUp modification was being negotiated (see above LiftFund profile), Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Texas in August 2017. The business community in Houston and surrounding communities—a core marketplace for LiftFund—were devastated. SCF responded by becoming one of the first funders of LiftFund’s new rapid-response disaster recovery fund by providing an additional $100,000 in loan capital for this program. This program created a suite of post-emergency loan relief and new loan programs with high flexibility, no interest, and rapid deployment timelines to assist small businesses to quickly rebuild and recover after this catastrophic hurricane. The Fund’s Impact Profile Two years after the the Fund was launched its impacts were: - $7.2 million in business relief funding - 322 small business owners lifted - 47% women-owned; 72% entrepreneurs of color - Established a strong coalition of 50+ community partners - 40 Take Action Now workshops and resource fairs; 619 workshop attendees - New partnership with U.S EDA on future effort to develop disaster preparedness toolkits for small businesses in the Gulf Coast

In 2015, SCF loaned $200,000 to support LiftFund’s Promise Loan Program. This prototype micro-lending program incorporated a unique underwriting system designed to fund early-stage low-income business owners that LiftFund’s existing programs were not previously able to serve. After 3-4 years of testing and revising the program to overcome high losses, LiftFund tightened its underwriting criteria to reduce Promise Loan defaults. Consequently, SCF’s capital was not being adequately deployed to end-users due to the tightened lending standards and resulting lower deployments overall. SCF’s loan to LiftFund was subsequently modified in October 2017 to allow its funds to support the newer LiftUp loan program. LiftUp loans were developed to serve clientele similar to the Promise Loan program but by utilizing LiftFund’s standard underwriting parameters (these standards had been loosened on some important criteria based on learnings gained from the Promise Loan Program).

SCF’s $44,000 loan increased small-business loans to low-income owners in New Orleans, Shreveport, and Alexandria, Louisiana. These were new expansion regions for LiftFund where there existed unmet lending needs. SCF selected LiftFund (previously Accion Texas, Inc.) given its status as a U.S. small business microloan industry leader. Our capital was targeted to grow LiftFund’s lending within its historic and to expand to new geographic markets, as well as to continue serving low-income, minority, and underserved populations. LiftFund’s borrowers are typically low-income small-business owners, of which over 80% were minorities and 35% were women (at the time of investment).

SCF’s $27,000 loan supported low-income business owners in San Antonio, Texas, allowing LiftFund to increase its lending capacity in a well-established market region with unmet loan capital needs. SCF selected LiftFund (previously Accion Texas, Inc.) given it status as a U.S. small business microloan industry leader. Our capital was targeted to grow LiftFund’s lending within its historic and to expand to new geographic markets, as well as to continue serving low-income, minority, and underserved populations. LiftFund’s borrowers are typically low-income small-business owners, of which over 80% were minorities and 35% were women (at the time of investment).

MercyCorps Northwest (MCNW) programs work to increase economic self-sufficiency and community integration through microenterprise development and self-employment. MCNW assists low-income, current and aspiring small-business owners throughout Oregon and Washington in order to reduce unemployment, grow personal incomes and assets, and increase economic growth. MCNW provides high-touch technical assistance to prepare prospect borrowers to launch and grow their businesses before and after their loans of under $50,000 are disbursed. SCF invested in MCNW by targeting to grow its loan fund to serve more low-income clients and to support its efforts to expand its service area, especially within its newer Seattle region.

SCF invested in NAB’s holding company (Native American Bancorp) because NAB is part of a small but important list of mission-oriented banks—it is one of only 18 Native banks and the only one with a national footprint. NAB is a Native CDFI and a Minority Depository Institution because of its cooperative ownership by over 30 tribal nations/entities. NAB’s pursuit of diversifying native economies and creating sustainable communities in rural poor regions is of critical importance. SCF’s loan to NAB provides them with growth capital to achieve their 5-year strategic growth goals. Importantly, SCF’s $300,000 investment into the holding company allows for these funds to be leveraged 1:11 which opens the opportunity for NAB to raise an additional $3.3M, thus greatly increasing their overall lending capacity.

This capital supports NI’s small business lending activities targeting “diverse” populations—women, minorities, and veterans—within NI’s more recent service expansion areas within lower Michigan’s rural and minor urban areas. The loans funded will be capped at $60,000 in order to target to serve small and emerging businesses—a sector that has been largely underserved, and even more so as it relates to women and minorities. As part of its efforts to increase its lending to more diverse populations, NI will incorporate flexible underwriting criteria, heightened outreach efforts (including opening new offices), develop language and culturally appropriate materials. NI also anticipates that it will need to provide these new entrepreneurs with higher levels of training and business technical assistance services in order for them to achieve stability, growth and success.

SCF’s investment in this US-based capital-raising arm of Oikocredit International provided general funding for Oikocredit International to grow its development financing and technical assistance to its 800+ partner organizations—microfinance institutions, fair trade co-ops, renewable energy initiatives and social enterprises—in over 60+ developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Runway Project Oakland is part of a national initiative solving the “Friends & Family” seed funding gap for African American entrepreneurs. This program strives to fix the broken infrastructure surrounding African American entrepreneurs. It provides early-stage funding using a flexible underwriting process and holistic high-touch business support. Loans are low-interest and capped at $20,000. Runway Project builds and leverages a connected ecosystem of funders and business service providers as a wealth-building strategy for the entrepreneur. Core partners in the Oakland-based prototype program include: Self Help Federal Credit Union, Impact Hub Oakland, Uptima and other entrepreneur bootcamps. Between the launch of the program in October 2017 and December 31, 2019, twenty one loans had been made to African American entrepreneurs and additional capital is also being raised to continue to grow this investment fund.