Community Affairs:
Article Archive > Indiana

Indiana Venture Center
The Indiana Venture Center (IVC) is a nonprofit organization that provides business development services to entrepreneurs developing high-growth companies in Indiana. IVC "Entrepreneurs in Residence" work closely with budding entrepreneurs to help them meet their growth milestones, monitor the rate at which they use capital, take a long-term strategic view of their business and the market, and help them communicate with stakeholders. IVC also has close relationships with five Indiana universities that help the Center's staff screen prospective clients and that provide expertise to companies chosen to be clients. In 2005, IVC worked with 29 companies to raise $3.3 million in equity capital that leveraged an additional $17 million in equity and debt investments. IVC is now helping to form a separate seed capital fund, IVC Equity Partners, that will invest in companies in 11 Midwest states in five industry categories: transportation and logistics, alternative energy and energy generation, custom and advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and information technology related to these fields. Banks can work with IVC by referring prospective clients to IVC, accepting referrals of companies from IVC, providing operating support to IVC and by investing in the new seed capital fund.

For more information, contact Steve Beck at (317) 684-6810 or sbeck@ivcequitypartners.com.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Winter 2006-2007]

A Beacon of Hope for the Homeless
The Light House Mission, a 150 year old social service agency that provides both temporary, and permanent, shelter for the homeless, and offers opportunities for self-sufficiency for Southwest Indiana's underserved individuals. The Light House Mission manages several sites, including a 130,000 square foot facility that provides 19 long-term housing units, and provides 450-500 meals a day. Most recently the Light House Mission has acquired an old school building that they are planning to convert to additional long-term housing. Throughout the years, the Light House Mission has worked with a number of financial institutions to rehab its facilities, but currently is seeking more favorable terms to modernize the kitchen and bathrooms in its primary location, in Terre Haute, Indiana. In addition, the Light House Mission is seeking financing to rehab the school to convert it to provide supportive services and housing. Additional opportunities include providing technical assistance for fundraising and grant writing, as well as participation on its board of directors.

For further information, contact Tim Fagg, Executive Director, at (812) 232-7001.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Spring 2006]

Indiana Redevelopment Corporation Receives New Markets Tax Credits
The Indiana Redevelopment Corporation (IRC), a joint venture between the nonprofit Indiana Association for Community Economic Development and the real estate investment company House Investments, Inc., received a $25 million allocation of new markets tax credits in May 2004. IRC will use the tax credits to make flexible loans and investments in non-housing real estate projects such as commercial, industrial, office, and retail developments, and in community facilities such as day care centers and community centers in low-income communities in Indiana. Banks can purchase new markets tax credits from IRC. Banks also can refer prospective borrowers to IRC for equity and for subordinate financing while participating in such projects as senior secured lenders.

Contact: Doug Sylvester at (317) 580-2535 or dsylvester@houseinvestments.com.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments Investments, Summer 2005]

Cooperative Financing in the Upper Midwest
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund (NCDF) is a for-profit, cooperatively owned loan fund that provides financing, training and expertise to small producer, consumer, affordable-housing, worker and land cooperatives in eleven states in the upper Midwest. NCDF today has more than $8 million in assets, has made hundreds of loans to cooperatives since its founding in 1978 and has contained losses since 1978 to 0.27 percent of dollars loaned. Investors in NCDF include banks, cooperatives, religious orders, foundations and others. Certified by the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund as a CDFI and as a community development entity, NCDF also has funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help develop and finance rural housing cooperatives, and NCDF last year established a community development credit union that helps members of cooperatives finance their membership shares. Banks are involved with NCDF as co-lenders, as investors and on the board of directors.

For more information, contact Margaret Lund at (612) 331-9103 or at margaret@ncdf.org. NCDF's web site is www.ncdf.org.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Summer 2004]

Lending Improves Quality of Life
Great Lakes Rural Capital Assistance Program (GLRCAP) is a non-profit firm helping small communities in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin install and improve drinking water, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure and management systems serving lower-income populations. Banks can provide construction financing and long-term loans for these projects. GLRCAP, which works through local community action agencies, recently won a $700,000 grant to assist local communities with planning for affordable housing and economic development. Banks can provide loans for projects that GLRCAP helps plan.

For more information, contact Debra Martin at (800) 775-9767 or dcmartin@wsos.org.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Spring 2003]

Indiana: Entrepreneurship Training
The award winning Purdue University Calumet Entrepreneurship Center (PUCEC) stimulates economic growth in Northwest Indiana by enrolling experienced business owners in a peer-learning program that improves their chances for success. About 300 entrepreneurs have completed the program since its 1995 inception and according to those responding to a recent survey, experienced average increases of 25 percent in sales, 32 percent in profitability and 62 percent in productivity. Banks refer prospective loan customers to PUCEC, discuss business plans and business credit with participants, find new borrowers among PUCEC graduates, and provide grant funding to PUCEC.

Contact: Jim Kilinski at PUCEC (219) 989-2100; kilinski@calumet.purdue.edu.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Winter 2003]

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