Loans Overview

How NFF Can Help       Eligibility           Contact a Lender        Client Stories

IS YOUR NONPROFIT LOOKING FOR A LOAN?

Nonprofits are the cornerstones of our communities, providing vital services that address our most pressing social problems and strengthen our neighborhoods. With their varied business models and unique operating environments, nonprofits need a financing partner that can appreciate their particular financial situations and provide solutions to meet their needs.

Since 1980, Nonprofit Finance Fund® (NFF®) has made over $250  million in loans to nonprofits in support of over $1.4 billion in projects. Our financing helps nonprofits manage growth, build and renovate facilities, balance government contract payments and cash flow and bridge capital campaigns, so organizations can better serve their clients and communities. Click here for more information on loans types and amounts.

HOW CAN NFF HELP YOU?
As a federally recognized Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with almost 30 years of experience financing nonprofits, NFF is flexible and tailors loans to individual clients based on their unique financial story, plans and capacity. NFF® loans can help your organization:

  • Purchase, build or renovate a facility, including leasehold improvements
  • Upgrade equipment necessary to your organization's operation
  • Manage timing of receivables from government grants or capital campaigns
  • Expand programs or grow an earned income or social venture
  • Temporarily smooth cash flow to meet day-to-day operating cash needs

Click for more information on NFF® loan offerings.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR NFF LOANS?
NFF makes loans to nonprofit organizations and social enterprises that promote the economic, social or cultural development of diverse communities. Our loan clients are financially equipped to use debt as a strategic tool. NFF will consider applications from organizations that meet the following criteria:

  • A 501(c)(3) organization or other entity that promotes the economic, social or cultural development of its community
  • Been in existence for 3 years or more (some clients such as social enterprises have shorter operating histories)
  • Unrestricted annual operating revenue of at least $500,000

NFF lenders evaluate smaller nonprofit and social enterprise organizations on a case-by-case basis.

HOW DO I LEARN MORE?
NFF serves nonprofits from offices in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and West Coast. To request more information or apply for a loan, contact your nearest NFF local office.

MEET OUR CLIENTS

"Our line of credit with Nonprofit Finance Fund has enabled us to operate all of our programs at maximum capacity with confidence and without interruption. Thanks to NFF, the Food Trust is able to provide nutrition education, operate 26 farmers markets, and bring stores selling healthy, fresh food to impoverished neighborhoods in the Philadelphia region."
- Daniel Rawleigh, Director of Finance & Administration, Food Trust


"Our financing process was incredibly complex, which made it essential that the participants be flexible and ready to work through issues for the betterment of the project. With Nonprofit Finance Fund, there was never any question that they had the best thing for the theatre at heart. Every time a new need or problem arose, NFF was the first place we turned."
- Troy Siebels, Executive Director, The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts


"The lack of capital financing options places a severe limitation on social enterprises attempting to take proven entrepreneurial models to scale. As a result, some of the world's most innovative solutions to social challenges never realize their potential impact. The work of NFF and other CDFIs offers a new and critically important vehicle with which enterprises like ours can move out of their pilot phases to self-sufficiency and beyond. We are reaching more children, effecting more change, and operating at a scale that would not otherwise have been possible."
- Jane Robinson, CFO, First Book


"Without Nonprofit Finance Fund, we wouldn't exist. NFF lent us money to purchase the building we're in. They appreciate our business more and they appreciate the nonprofit structure more. They are not just lending, but helping us through issues."
- Jay Laudato, Fmr. Executive Director, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center


See more Client Stories!

Nonprofit Services


To listen to the NFF® Loan Webinar: Preparing Your Organization to Apply for a Loan, and to download the presentation, please click here.




CARS™, the CDFI Assessment and Ratings System is the standard third-party assessment of a CDFI’s impact and financial performance.