CCLF’s 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting Highlights Resiliency During the Pandemic

On June 17, CCLF held its Annual Stakeholders Meeting virtually for the second consecutive year. Funders, investors, borrowers and supporters joined to learn how their funding and partnership increased CCLF’s social impact in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fund’s plans post-pandemic.

CCLF held its Annual Stakeholders Meeting June 17. The virtual program outlined the fund’s performance in 2020 and profiled three borrowers who sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program included live reports and presentations of borrower projects that demonstrate CCLF’s perseverance and community outreach during the unprecedented challenges of 2020. Featured borrowers, presented through video segments and a live presentation, included The UPS Store Woodlawn, Momentum Coffee and Co-working and Amped Kitchens (see sidebar below).

CCLF Board Chair Matt Reilein opened the program via a video greeting. “This pandemic threatened to erase 30 years of community development efforts CCLF and our borrowers have planted to transform neighborhoods, but with your help capital continued to flow where it was needed most,” Reilein stated. “Thank you to the many investors, funders, individual donors, partners and customers that provide the motivation to help correct decades of disinvestment in communities of color.”

Lycrecia Parks, Vice President of Portfolio Management, served as Virtual Emcee for the 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting. Transitioning between segments, Parks presented CCLF’s 2020 portfolio performance. “No one person, one thing or organization could pull us out of the pandemic. But together, we made it! We are still here!” Parks told the virtual audience.

“CCLF partnered with various organizations, municipalities, and financial institutions to provide COVID-relief assistance,” Parks continued. “Through those partnerships CCLF was able to provide $1.5 million through the Together Now program; $1.3 million through the Chicago Small Business Resiliency Fund; $9 million through the Cook County Community Recovery Fund; and $9.7 million through the Business Interruption Fund. Those partnerships provided a total of $21.4 million in COVID-relief.”

“Through thoughtful underwriting and consideration,” Parks later shared, “CCLF closed 48 loans totaling over $24 million in fiscal year 2020, $9.5 million was for facilities; $6.6 million for housing loans; $6.9 million for Commercial Retail; and $1 million for Social Enterprises.” She added, “CCLF ended fiscal year 2020 with 179 loans outstanding, totaling over $96.8 million. As of the end of the first quarter of 2021, CCLF had 184 loans outstanding totaling over $99 million. We are nearing a portfolio of $100 million outstanding. This is certainly a milestone for CCLF!”

(clockwise) During the 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting, CCLF President Calvin L. Holmes, COO and EVPP Bob Tucker, VP of Portfolio Management Lycrecia Parks and CFO Angela Dowell, outlined CCLF’s perseverance and community outreach during the unprecedented challenges of 2020.

In her final segment Parks informed the audience of CCLF’s portfolio quality and how the pandemic affected its borrowers. “We agreed to offer loan payment forbearance in three-month increments. The team pivoted and started calling the most at-risk borrowers to gather data and make decisions. We learned that about 15% of CCLF’s borrowers actually needed assistance and the team was there to provide it. To date, about 97% of the borrowers have commenced with their loan payments and the remaining 3% are nearing the end of their loan forbearance. Based on the information collected, those 3% should be financially stable enough to start remitting their loan payments as scheduled.”

“As a result of the payment forbearance assistance and all the other COVID-19 financial assistance programs provided, CCLF ended fiscal year 2020 with zero percent delinquency,” Parks added. “This held true through the first quarter of 2021 and to date.”

In 2020, CCLF’s Board of Directors approved a new four-year strategic plan with the goal to double CCLF’s asset size. Bob Tucker, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Programs introduced the four focus areas of the plan. The first focus area is Invest in the Community. “We will be increasing our access to capital and utilizing even more disadvantaged business enterprises in our work,” Tucker explained. “With our new plan we will be more intentional in fulfilling our geography – increasing our reach and impact in suburban geographies and in Latinx communities. We will also step up our policy agenda, advocating for the people and communities we serve.”

“Our second area of focus is to Invest in Community Developers and Service Providers,” Tucker continued. “We will build out a collaboration with service providers and also enhance our own customer service experience. We will expand our technical assistance to reach further and go deeper.”

The third focus area of the strategic plan is to Invest in Our People. Tucker noted, “We are very proud of the fact that our organization looks like the people we serve, and we want to be an employer of choice in Chicagoland.”

“Fiscal Year 2020 was a financial journey for CCLF,” said Angela Dowell, Chief Financial Officer. In a highly informative presentation, Dowell explained “CCLF ended fiscal year 2020 with $121 million in total assets supported by $32 million in net assets. Many of you – our funders and investors – called us very early in the pandemic to ask what support was needed and you responded with additional grant funding, waived or reduced interest, covenant waivers, and relaxed restrictions on grants. All of this support is what enabled CCLF to end the year with a surplus.”

“CCLF also received a clean audit opinion with no findings and maintained its AA, three-star Aeris® rating and for the first time received a policy plus rating.”

CCLF President, Calvin L. Holmes, rounded out the agenda with a special presentation thanking funders for their dedicated support throughout 2020. “Our donors and investors supported our technology upgrades in our last strategic plan which allowed for a smooth transition to remote working,” Holmes said. “Our donors and investors supported building our assets to $100 million dollars which allowed us to offer loan payment forbearance. Our donors and investors are true partners that worked alongside CCLF to support our customers during the pandemic.”

Holmes further lauded CCLF’s PPP Pop Up Virtual Call Center, “With the help of the Call Center,” Holmes said, “26 participants were successful in securing a PPP loan.  Those loans totaled nearly $1 million and averaged just over $38,000.”  He also acknowledged the Chicagoland COVID-19 Community Resource Guide which helps navigate the myriad of grants, loans and other resources available from public and private sources. “This guide helps not-for-profits and for-profits better understand which grants and loans are still available to propel them out of the pandemic to full recovery and expansion.”

CCLF’s 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting may be viewed here.

CCLF Borrowers’ Resiliency During 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting

Borrower profiles were the highlight of the Stakeholders Meeting, allowing CCLF borrowers a chance to tell their stories and their experience working with CCLF during the challenges of 2020.

CCLF borrower, The UPS Store Woodlawn, was a featured presentation during the meeting. CCLF provided a $225,000 construction/mini-permanent loan to Generation I owned by Rex and Monica Ingram to purchase the equipment and provide working capital to open the UPS Store. The store, occupying 1,700-square-feet of space in Woodlawn Station, opened just as the effects of the pandemic was rising.

Highlighting CCLF’s 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting, CCLF Borrowers shared their experiences working with CCLF and navigating through the challenges instigated by 2020’s social unrest and COVID-19 pandemic. (from left) Rex and Monica Ingram, Generation I and The UPS Store Woodlawn; Tracy Powell and Nikki Bravo, Ignite Technology & Innovation and Momentum Coffee and Co-working; and Mott Smith, Co-founder and COO of Amped Kitchens.

Momentum Coffee and Co-working, an additional featured borrower, also shared their experiences. CCLF provided a small business loan to Tracy Powell and Nikki Bravo of Ignite Technology & Innovation to purchase the equipment and provide the working capital to open the coffee shop and coworking space, located in the South Loop. Ignite Technology & Innovation was also the recipient of a small business loan through CCLF’s partnership with the City of Chicago through their Chicago Small Business Resiliency Fund program.

Mott Smith, founder and principal of Amped Kitchens Chicago rounded out the Stakeholders Meeting’s borrower profiles. CCLF partnered with LISC and BlueHub Capital to provide a loan to Chicago Prep Master Tenant, LLC for the acquisition and renovation of the multi-tenant food manufacturing facility in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. In a live discussion, Mott Smith, Co-owner CEO of Amped Kitchens explained, “the project experienced some delays due to COVID-19 and the restrictions that came as a result. Even though we opened during the pandemic, we still managed to finish the project on schedule. CCLF worked with us, which allowed us to stay in business and provide the services to our customers. You helped us to make it through some very hard times and we’re anxious to see what the future holds.”

CCLF’s 2021 Annual Stakeholders Meeting may be viewed here.