Company Profile
Company Overview
Our Mission
Creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for people of color, women, rural residents and low-wealth families and communities.
The nonprofit Center for Community Self-Help and its financing affiliates Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, and Self-Help Ventures Fund provide financing, technical support and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream. Since its founding in 1980, Self-Help has reached out to female, rural and minority borrowers across North Carolina, in Washington, D.C., California, and many other states.
We help borrowers nationwide to build wealth through ownership of a home or business.
We strengthen underserved communities by financing nonprofits, childcare centers, community health facilities, public charter schools and residential and commercial real estate projects.
We operate a secondary market program that enables private lenders to make more loans in low-wealth communities.
Over time we have learned, and demonstrated, that low-income borrowers pose no greater credit risk than others. Our borrowers have proven their determination to repay their loans, build their businesses, improve their communities, and build wealth through home equity.
Company History
Milestones in Self-Help's History
1980-1983
Founded Center for Community Self-Help to provide management assistance to NC worker-owned businesses
Received first operating grant
Opened first office, in downtown Durham
1984-1986
Established financing affiliates (Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Ventures Fund) with $77 raised from a bake sale. Shifted focus to helping disadvantaged North Carolinians build wealth through home and small business ownership
Made first small business loan
Made first home loan
Opened regional office in Charlotte
1987-1990
Received first appropriation from the NC General Assembly
Opened regional office in Asheville
Launched peer microlending program
Approved by US Small Business Administration to offer guaranteed small business loans
Approved by Fannie Mae to sell home loans in the secondary mortgage market
Began lending to child care providers
1991-1994
Launched real estate development initiative by renovating historic Asheville building as nonprofit and small business center)
Opened regional office in Greenville
Chosen as one of thirty-five lenders to administer the SBA Microloan Demonstration program
Acquired Greensboro building for nonprofit and small business center; opened Triad regional office
Started Community Facilities Fund child care lending initiative
Hosted first national CDFI Institute to promote growth of community development financial institutions
Initiated demonstration to develop a secondary market for “non-standard” home loans
Joined Federal Home Loan Bank system
1995-1998
Developed Mercy Business Development and Training Center in collaboration with Wilson Community Improvement Association
Created Staged Microlending program
Reached $100 million in assets
Started Walltown Homeownership Project in Durham; “rehabbed” and sold eighteen homes to low-wealth families by September 1998
Expanded Community Facilities Fund lending to charter schools, supportive housing groups, and health care providers
Launched environmental lending program
Began Hispanic immigrant lending initiative in Charlotte
Partnered with City of Wilson on Elvie neighborhood homeownership program
Created Coalition for Public Trust to ensure that NC Blue Cross/Blue Shield conversion creates multi-million dollar health care foundation
Established Wilmington office
Launched Self-Help’s Community Advantage to expand home loan secondary market program nationwide, in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Fannie Mae
1999-2002
Provided 1,000th microloan to small business and topped $50 million in SBA loan portfolio
Reached $500 million in assets, with over 90% used in community development lending
Played key role in Coalition for Responsible Lending’s success in passing first state legislation to curb predatory home lending in NC
Launched programs for eastern NC child care providers and homeowners to recover from Hurricane Floyd flooding
Helped establish the Latino Community Credit Union, only the second such institution in the southeastern US
Increased home and commercial lending to Latinos to well over $1 million annually.
Founded the Center for Responsible Lending, an affiliated nonprofit research and policy organization dedicated to curbing predatory lending.
Opened regional office in Fayetteville.
2003 - 2006
Celebrated the 50th renovated home in Walltown neighborhood of Durham.
Received a $75 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation from the CDFI Fund to stimulate investments in businesses located in low-income areas.
Opened an office of Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending in Washington, DC.
Fulfilled commitment to Fannie Mae to provide $2 billion in financing to homeowners nationwide through the secondary market program. Announced new commitment of $2.5 billion by 2008.
Helped finance the American Tobacco redevelopment project in downtown Durham with Self-Help’s largest commercial loan ever--$40 million.
Opened an office in Oakland, CA.
CRL helped enact the first federal usury law in 25 years, protecting military personnel from abusive lending.