A foundation
for stronger neighborhoods

CCLF helps people in emerging neighborhoods bring their ideas to life. Since 1991, we have aligned capital with equitable social and economic outcomes. By moving challenging projects and initiatives forward, we empower residents and communities to build better futures.

We See Our Neighbors and Their Strengths

CCLF knows our borrowers and the tremendous talents they bring to their communities. Where others only see risk, we see potential. We provide accessible financing and strategic support to community focused and based organizations and enterprises that are typically left out—because we know these visionaries are essential to Chicagoland’s success.

Building on through times of crisis

We’re leveraging CCLF’s expertise and capacity to assist our customers and the many new borrowers in dire need of support during COVID-19 and civil unrest. Every community developer and every entrepreneur we sustain is a vital part of Chicagoland’s fabric. By helping them stay resilient, we’ll all get through this challenging time together.

How we’re responding

Partnered with city, county and state governments to help distribute an estimated $35 million in resiliency loans and grants to the public.

Assisted over 100 callers with Payroll Protection Program applications through a pop-up call center offering one-on-one support to small non-profits and vulnerable community businesses.

Created the Chicagoland COVID-19 Community Development Resource Guide to help small enterprises navigate emergency funding opportunities and other available tools.

Provided hands-on technical assistance to small businesses and nonprofits through webinars, virtual forums and telecommunications.

Our Areas of Impact

Making dreams for a better home come true in Northern Illinois

We help borrowers buy and rehab single-family, multi-family and cooperative housing in disinvested areas in order to create quality homes where people can flourish and grow.

Affordable Housing

Community Facilities

Bringing a world-class performing arts center to Bronzeville

We finance the purchase and rehabilitation of properties that provide social services, jumpstart the local economy and bring arts and culture, education and jobs to Chicagoland neighborhoods.

Planting seeds for employment in West Englewood

We help visionary for- and not-for-profit organizations acquire the working capital and equipment necessary that, in turn, creates jobs for neighborhood residents and incubates community businesses that increase local wealth.

Social Enterprises

Commercial Real Estate

Cooking up innovation in Belmont-Cragin

We provide low-cost financing for strategic commercial real estate projects that revitalize communities, create local jobs and drive transformative change in lower-income neighborhoods.

When the first-time homeowners pulled up to the house in Streamwood, Illinois, the freshly repaved driveway made for a smooth arrival. The brand-new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops gleamed. A newly installed bathtub sat ready to be filled. With a safe and beautiful place to call their own, the family of five was finally home.

The organization that made this family’s dream come true is Greater Chicagoland Fellowship (GCF), an Illinois nonprofit that helps people with low-to-moderate incomes—particularly those suffering from addiction—find stability through affordable homeownership. Since 2001 GCF has bought and rehabbed over 450 homes across Lake, DuPage, McHenry and Will counties.

“We’re not ‘patch-and-paint.’ We aim to make our homes repair-free for at least 3-5 years because we know our buyers are often using their last dollars on the purchase.”
David Pokorny, President of Greater Chicagoland Fellowship

GCF uses its expertise in housing rehabilitation and assistance programs to help families acquire the properties at affordable prices. But it’s the organization’s unwavering commitment to high-quality home renovations such as the Streamwood rehab that truly sets it apart.

CCLF’s decade-long partnership with GCF has financed 21 homes, including the Streamwood house. Our collaboration allows CCLF to build on its impact and make a real difference in the lives of individuals and families throughout the region.

Growing Home is a USDA-certified organic farm yielding over 30,000 pounds of kale, tomatoes and other produce each year. Since 2002 this innovative social enterprise has used urban farming to tackle unemployment and food insecurity, right in the heart of Englewood.

A 2019 loan from CCLF enabled Growing Home to finish building its third farm site on a campus that now fills nearly one acre in West Englewood. Each site offers skills training, job placement and other services to individuals facing employment barriers. Beyond employment support, production assistants often find a new therapeutic outlet and a passion for growing that they can share with their families and communities over a lifetime.

Growing Home is committed to distributing all of the new site’s produce in Englewood through affordable sales and donations. To make accessing the food as easy as possible, the nonprofit creates pop-up stands throughout the community.

With its creative and entrepreneurial approach to addressing multiple community issues, Growing Home exemplifies how CCLF’s social enterprise partners are building on.

“People are often surprised that a project likes ours exists right here in Englewood. We’re part of the ‘secret sauce’ that makes this community.”
Janelle St. John,
Interim Executive Director of Growing Home, Inc.

Dilapidated buildings aren’t just eyesores—they pose real concerns to a neighborhood’s safety and vitality. But when the right vision comes along, these long-abandoned sites can be reimagined into powerful, modern commercial anchors that help communities build on and restore prosperity.

CCLF provided a $4 million construction loan to help convert one such site—Belmont-Cragin’s historic Zenith Electronics factory—into Amped Kitchens, a cutting-edge culinary prep and production facility for food companies. Other funders joining CCLF in the effort included Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), BlueHub Capital, and CCLF investor PNC Bank.

Often compared to “an apartment building for food companies,” the Amped Kitchens concept first debuted in Los Angeles. Its Chicago location offers 64 commercial kitchens available for rent to tenants ranging from food startups to national companies.

By putting down roots in Belmont-Cragin, Amped Kitchens is poised to help strengthen the neighborhood while providing the space and resources for new generations of culinary visionaries to continue Chicago’s proud legacy of food innovation.

“Belmont-Cragin was already a strong, hardworking community long before we arrived. We’re thrilled for the chance to contribute to its success.”
Mott Smith and Brian Albert,
Co-Founders of Amped Kitchens

Committed to Chicagoland

Explore our loans throughout Chicagoland’s six counties and across our four sectors.

Project Type

Commercial Real Estate

Affordable Housing

Community Facility

Social Enterprise

loans closed in 2019

loans closed before 2019

Meet our talented staff who make our work possible.

View OUR TEAM.

A foundation for stronger neighborhoods