Community Affairs:
Article Archive > West Virginia

Appalachian Region's Progress Fund Expands
Tourism in the Appalachian region of Ohio is getting a boost from the Progress Fund, a certified community development financial institution (CDFI) lending needed capital and providing entrepreneurial coaching to small businesses in the travel and tourism industry.

Using a start-up grant of $200,000 from the State of Ohio, the Progress Fund is expanding its service area, currently encompassing 39 counties in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, into the 29 counties of Ohio's Appalachian region. The Progress Fund supports the niche industry of tourism businesses, including bed and breakfasts, brew-pubs, general stores, restaurants, museums, and similar small businesses that attract and serve visitors in rural areas. The Progress Fund is currently seeking investors to capitalize its Ohio expansion. Investors are asked to invest a minimum of $100,000 to help meet the organization's goal of a $5 million fund by 2007. Terms are flexible and negotiated individually with investors. Examples of previous investment terms have included a non-amortizing, 10-year loan at below market interest rates.

To invest in any of the Progress Funds, please contact David Kahley, CEO, at (724) 529-0384, or visit it's Web site, www.progressfund.org.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments Investments, Spring 2006]

Illinois Facilities Fund Capitalizing $100 Million Loan Program
The Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF) is a nonprofit certified Community Development Financial Institution that provides loans, facilities planning, and development expertise to Illinois nonprofits for facility acquisition and improvements, new construction, and working capital and pre-development purposes. IFF's borrowers are nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities and special needs groups throughout Illinois, such as child care centers, health care clinics, charter schools, homeless and transitional shelters, and affordable housing developers. Investors in the IFF loan program include ten banks, nine foundations, the state of Illinois, and a number of persons through the IFF's Community Investor Fund. IFF now is raising $100 million of new capital over five years to continue its lending program. Structured as collateral trust notes with a 15-year term that will be issued semi-annually by IFF, proceeds from the notes will be used to purchase real estate and facilities-related loans made by IFF to nonprofit organizations in Illinois. Banks can be involved as investors in the IFF loan program, can be co-lenders with IFF, can refer prospective borrowers to IFF, and can provide grant funding to support IFF's operations.

Contact Trinita Logue at (312) 629-0060 or tlogue@iffund.org; www.iff.org.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Fall 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]

Venture Capital in the Midwest
Venture Capital Fund Hopewell Ventures, L.P. in July 2003 received its "Go Forth" letter from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), a key step toward becoming a Small Business Investment Company. Hopewell, raising up to $150 million of capital, will invest $1 to $5 million in early- to later-stage companies in a dozen Midwestern states -- between Nebraska and Ohio, the Canadian border and Kentucky -- that Hopewell says are underserved by venture capital sources. Banks can invest in Hopewell Ventures as limited partners, can refer companies needing an equity infusion, and can provide banking services to companies in which Hopewell has invested. Hopewell's sister fund, $34 million Adena Ventures, serving Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia, was the first New Markets Venture Capital Company designated by SBA.

Contact: Tom Parkinson at (312) 357-9600; info@hopewellventures.com; www.hopewellventures.com.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Winter 2003]

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