Facilities Financing Opportunities (Credit Enhancement)

Looking for facilities assistance? If you work with a charter school and are looking for facilities assistance, you may be interested in contacting the current grantees under the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program to determine if they are able to work with your charter school to secure financing. These grantees do not provide grants, but they work with the charter school to secure financing (loans/bonds) for facilities. Please note that each of these grantees have a focus area, so you should contact those grantees that are interested in working in the State of your charter school or have a national focus. Also, it may be helpful to visit the websites of these entities to get a better sense of the work they do.

We encourage charter schools seeking services to contact multiple organizations to determine which one can offer the best rates and terms for their situation.

Credit Enhancement Grantees

BlueHub Capital (formerly Boston Community Loan Fund)

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

BlueHub Loan Fund, Inc. (f/k/a Boston Community Loan Fund, Inc.) is a nonprofit community development financial institution. Since 1985, we have invested over $1.4 billion in projects that provide affordable housing, good jobs, and new opportunities in low-income communities, connecting these neighborhoods to the mainstream economy. We are committed to working together with our peers and partners across the nation toward our goal of an inclusive prosperity that ensures that low-income people and communities have access to the tools they need to create wealth, opportunity and lasting change. Whether we are financing a health center or a charter school, solar panels or a saw mill, a low-income family or an established developer of affordable housing, our focus remains on developing financial tools, programs and ideas that provide access to opportunity, bridge gaps rather than widen them, and offer the potential and promise to change the world. In the charter school sector, BlueHub Loan Fund supports flexible loan terms to high capacity schools serving low-income families that can't meet their facility needs with tradition financing products. Products include one or more of the following features: Equity requirement below 10%; Loan-to-Value over 90%; Available to schools that have not been through a charter renewal; Available to independent schools (not part of a CMO network); Below market pricing; Loan terms that extend past charter renewal; Maximum guarantee fee of 1% at closing; Flexible collateral requirements for leasehold improvements; and Subordinate financing.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

Build with Purpose

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

Founded in 2003, Build with Purpose is an innovative non-profit real estate company with a focus on community and economic development. Using real estate as a catalyst for social change, Build with Purpose revitalizes communities through the redevelopment of vacant or underutilized buildings and land. Our projects include transforming warehouses into schools, renovating convents into affordable housing and turning abandoned urban lots into vibrant community space. By stabilizing vital community assets, our projects transform neighborhoods and provide long-term financial stability to our clients. Build with Purpose (BWP) offers charter schools (start-up and mature) access to the following: acquisition loans for school facilities; construction and permanent financing for facility projects; access to predevelopment lending for projects; leasehold improvement loans; and lease guarantees.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

Building Hope - America Charter School Finance Corporation

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

Building Hope, a Charter School Facilities Fund established in 2003, is a national nonprofit organization that believes investments in the growth of quality charter schools will increase under-served children’s chances of success in life. Building Hope supports high quality charter school growth by providing facilities financing, turn-key charter school facility development, incubator space, and back-office business support services to charter schools nationwide.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

California Charter Schools Association

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

The California Charter Schools Association advances the charter school movement through state and local advocacy, leadership on accountability, and resources for member schools. CCSA is a trusted source of data and information on California's charter schools for parents, authorizers, legislators, the press and other interested groups. Through the California Charter Building Fund (CCBF), CCSA funds a first-loss reserve to credit enhance charter school facility deals. In the event of a Loan default, CCSA draws funds from the Grant Reserve Account to pay principal and interest due on the outstanding debt. The CCBF will seek to lend at approximately one percent below the risk-adjusted pricing of a conventional lender and offer amortization periods of at least 20 years, which will improve cash flow and keep schools' scarce resources available for their core mission of driving student achievement.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

States:

California

California School Finance Authority

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

The California School Finance Authority (CSFA) was created in 1985 to finance educational facilities and provide school districts and community college districts access to working capital. Since its inception, the Authority has developed several school facilities financing programs and is primarily focused on assisting charter schools to meet their facility and working capital needs.

States:

California

Capital Impact Partners

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

Through capital and commitment Capital Impact helps people build communities of opportunity that break barriers to success. A nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), we have a 35-year history delivering strategic financing, social innovation programs, and capacity building that creates social change and delivers financial impact nationwide

Capital Solutions at IFF

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

IFF is a mission-driven lender, real estate consultant and developer that helps communities thrive by creating opportunities for low-income populations and individuals with disabilities. In education, IFF offers a comprehensive range of services for charter schools’ financial and real estate needs, and works with local education stakeholders to focus policy and research on expanding quality options in neighborhoods that need them most. IFF serves charter schools located in the Midwest.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

Center for Community Self-Help

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

The nonprofit Center for Community Self-Help is the umbrella organization that encompasses all parts of Self-Help, including Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund, and the Center for Responsible Lending. Together, we provide financing, technical support, consumer financial services and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream. Since Self-Help's founding in 1980, we have helped expand economic opportunity for underserved communities across North Carolina, Washington D.C., California, Illinois and many other states. Center for Community Self-Help ("Self-Help") is targeting its Charter School Loan Fund to start-up Charter Schools and Charter Schools located in under-served, disadvantaged communities. The benefits of our financing can be briefly summarized as: (i) lower fees at closing; (ii) lower interest rates; (iii) more flexible loan terms; (iv) longer amortization periods; and (v) enhanced technical assistance. This supports long-term financial and operating sustainability for schools in low-wealth communities that typically have few resources and tight operating margins.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

Charter Schools Development Corporation

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

CSDC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and CDFI, supports quality public school choice for underserved students by developing and financing affordable charter school facilities nationally. CSDC has a special focus on new/early-stage schools, rural schools, schools serving predominately low income students, and schools in communities with poor performing traditional schools. CSDC has received seven federal credit enhancement grants totaling $58.6M and uses these funds in multiple ways to 1) provide lease or loan guarantees, 2) leverage loan pools for tenant improvement, acquisition, construction and renovation mini-perm loans nationally and 3) to support its turnkey facility development program (lease with option-to-purchase). Often times, the same school will be served by multiple grants as it progresses through its facility lifecycle.

 

Civic Builders

Credit Enhancement Available 
Yes

Contact:

Description:

Civic Builders is the nation’s leading nonprofit lender and developer, bringing high-quality educational opportunities to under-resourced communities through the development of public charter schools. Since 2002, the organization has supported the growth of 65 schools educating more than 30,000 students annually.

Civic Builders achieves the mission of removing real estate as a barrier to an excellent public education by addressing the full spectrum of facilities and financing challenges faced by public charter schools. As a nonprofit organization with two decades of experience, Civic Builders’ portfolio represents $1.1 billion invested into economically distressed communities to ensure all students have access to safe, positive, and student-centered learning environments.

No facilities transaction data is available at this time.

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