Over 70 investors, funders, supporters, and staff joined the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) on Thursday, May 23, 2024, for the Annual Stakeholders Meeting at the Wintrust Conference Center in the Loop, which was the second in-person Stakeholders Meeting since the pandemic.

CCLF President, Calvin Holmes, welcomed attendees and recognized that the growth of the organization continues to be steady, purposeful, and impactful. He outlined the intention of CCLF’s Stakeholders meeting, which is to provide investors, funders, and our partners with firsthand knowledge of the impact their support has had on our target communities. He acknowledged the team at Wintrust Financial Bank and introduced our Stakeholders Sponsor and CCLF Board Member, Eric Phillips.

Eric Phillips highlighted the remodel of the bank’s 231 S. LaSalle Street location and Wintrust’s Lower-Level Conference Center. He welcomed guests and spotlighted the longstanding partnership between Wintrust and CCLF. He then welcomed Erik Hall, CCLF’s Board Chair.

Hall thanked CCLF’s investors, funders and community partners and emphasized that CCLF is on a strong trajectory going forward. He also recognized CCLF’s Board of Directors for their continued support. Hall then introduced Bob Tucker, CCLF’s Interim President and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Programs, and Angela Dowell, Chief Financial Officer, to offer their remarks.

Tucker expressed gratitude to the CCLF team and to those working to help ensure all neighborhoods thrive. Tucker and Dowell co-presented CCLF’s financial statements. CCLF was fully staffed in 2023, and the volume of loans closed set an all-time CCLF record, reaching $42.6 million compared to $33.4 million in 2022 and $22.6 million in 2021. CCLF closed the first quarter of 2024 with a $132.5 million outstanding consolidated principal loan balance and only a 1.64% delinquency rate.

This was the sixth consecutive year that CCLF has had a “clean audit.” Dowell thanked the portfolio management team as well as the executive and accounting teams.

CCLF views its current financial position as very strong, as it is in alignment with its 2021-2024 strategic plan goal of growing its total assets to $200 million and continuing to be a financially sustainable organization. Total assets grew by $53.9 million from 2020 to 2023, a 45% increase with net assets also increasing by $20.4 million from 2020 to 2023, a 63% increase.

Tucker and Dowell highlighted CCLF’s 2023 annual report, thanking CCLF’s External Relations team and encouraging attendees to take a report with them after the meeting.

Tucker also shared that CCLF already has started the work of creating a new strategic plan for the years ahead, as its current plan runs out at the end of the year. CCLF will be working with its staff, board members and stakeholders to create a vision to drive change and transformation for CCLF’s next chapter of growth.

Tucker and Dowell the, introduced CCLF’s Vice President of Lending Operations, Wendell Harris. Harris shared that within his role, he speaks with CCLF borrowers and works with them through CCLF’s technical services and underwriting, with the shared hope that their dreams become reality.

Harris introduced four CCLF Borrowers that shared details of their projects with the audience: Perry Vietti (Interfaith Housing Development Corporation); Rick Guzman (The Neighbor Project); Tigist Reda (Demera Ethiopian Restaurant) and Bonita Harrison (Sunshine Management).

Vietti shared his experience on multifamily housing. Rick Guzman offered insights on public/private partnerships and his experiences working with developers when he worked for the city of Aurora. Tigist Reda highlighted the rewards and challenges of commercial real estate and how her relationship with CCLF came to be. Bonita Harrison, a powerhouse developer behind the “Buy Back the Block” campaign in the Woodlawn neighborhood, discussed how she worked with Tigist Reda on the second Demera Ethiopian Restaurant deal.

The Stakeholders Meeting concluded with Tucker and Dowell taking the stage again to answer questions from the audience.