NFF Dollars at Work

Featured Loan Closing

SEED Los Angeles: Breaking down barriers to success through education and wraparound services 
$3.75 million sponsor loan + $910,000 direct loan 

SEED is the nation's first and only network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools designed for students who need – and deserve – a 24-hour learning environment to achieve their full potential. NFF’s loans in this New Market Tax Credit project will support the construction of a brand-new SEED campus in South Los Angeles on a property that has remained vacant since the 1992 Rodney King civil unrest. This campus will form part of a larger community development that includes affordable housing and a major public transit hub. SEED LA will serve 400 high school students, focusing on youth who are homeless or housing insecure, have an immediate family member who is incarcerated, or have interacted with Los Angeles County Children and Family Services. In addition to a high-quality education, SEED LA will provide wrap around services for youth who face barriers inside and outside the school, with the goal of creating a safe environment where those students can achieve academic success and thrive beyond the classroom. 

Partners: Chase Bank, Capital Impact Partners (CIP), Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Weingart Foundation

2021 loans and other financing

Based in Denver, PlatteForum connects young people to professional artists in a safe environment where they can take creative risks and explore social issues through the arts. Through this process, youth participants develop academic, professional, social-emotional, leadership, and personal skills. They also apply an equity lens to their work, seeking out BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth who often face greater barriers to their success. Through their flagship Art Lab Future program, PlatteForum offers free tutoring, social-emotional mental health counseling, food support, immigration services, and social work services for youth participants who are experiencing homelessness or are in the foster care system. Due to COVID-19, demand for these services has tripled – driving up PlatteForum's program costs. Offered through our Metro Denver Nonprofit Loan Fund, this loan will both help PlatteForum meet this rising demand and support investments in key infrastructure improvements – like a better space and new computers for staff – that will help them thrive in the long term.
Citizens of the World is an intimate network of high-achieving, community-based public schools. Their mission is to provide a high-quality education to a diverse community of students that reflect the abundant socioeconomic, racial and cultural diversity of their surroundings, developing their abilities, confidence, and sense of responsibility for themselves and their community. This loan will support the construction of a new, permanent location for grades 3-5 on the school’s Mar Vista campus. It will allow the school to bring the 5th grade back to the elementary campus and provide a students with a modern and updated site, adding art, enrichment, play, lunch and library to the space, and creating a more secure campus. In addition to bringing these activities into the same facility as the classrooms, this expansion will grow the school’s total capacity – meaning that Citizens of the World will be able to offer an exemplary education to more students.   Partners: Civic Builders 
LIFE Academy, a startup charter school in Montgomery, Alabama, provides students in grades K-8 with a holistic education rooted in trauma-informed learning, student connectedness, culturally relevant curricula, and authentic community partnership. This low-interest loan from NFF’s Resilient Communities Fund – NFF’s first ever loan in Alabama – will allow LIFE Academy to purchase and renovate the former St. Jude Educational Institute and Catholic Hospital, a key stop on the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail and the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s two children. A campus with such a prominent role in the civil rights movement will be a powerfully symbolic location for a school serving a city whose public school students are 75% Black. Owning – rather than renting – this historically significant building will help the school save money in the long term and serve  its community for years to come.  Partners: BlueHub Capital, Hope Credit Union 
Community Resource Center builds the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities through comprehensive leadership development, education, and resource programs. They offer a variety of programs to Colorado nonprofits, including: Rural Philanthropy Days, a conference for nonprofits serving rural populations; the Colorado Participation Project, a partnership with human services organizations to encourage members of marginalized communities to register to vote; the Colorado Grants Guide, the first database of funding sources for Colorado nonprofits; and the Colorado Nonprofit Leadership and Management Program, which has trained more than 700 emerging nonprofit leaders over the past 25 years. Community Resource Center recently launched a program that leverages 75 Americorps volunteers to launch COVID-19 containment efforts across the state. This $250,000 bridge loan from NFF will allow Community Resource Center to continue offering this critical program until it is reimbursed by the state of Colorado later this year. 
Compass Rose Education (CRE) is a network of tuition-free, public charter schools that combine academic success with personal growth so that K-12 students across Texas can navigate life’s big opportunities. Its rigorous, college-preparation-focused curriculum has enabled its student population, nearly 90% of which are from low-income households and 90% of which are students of color, to academically outperform those from the school district in almost all state tests. NFF and BlueHub Capital are each providing CRE with $3.6 million in refinancing a loan which supported the renovation of a building that holds CRE’s first San Antonio campus and 850 students. Together with a previous $1.1 million loan to CRE and a $1.4 million loan to CRE’s developer and landlord Building Hope, NFF has invested about $6 million into CRE’s efforts to bring high-quality education to students across Texas.  Partners: BlueHub Capital
The mission of Athletics and Beyond is to create opportunities through exposure; the organization provides tutoring for student athletes, athletic programs, and supplemental education for adults in the workforce. In addition, Athletics and Beyond is deeply involved in community service, outreach, and beautification. NFF offered Athletics and Beyond a $100,000 working capital loan through the Metro Denver Nonprofit Loan Fund, a collaboration between NFF, Community First Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, and The Denver Foundation designed to counter historic disparities in access to capital while financially supporting the Greater Denver region’s nonprofit ecosystem. Athletics and Beyond will leverage this loan to move towards achieving its five-year goal of serving 10,000 individuals annually, up from 3,000 today, by moving into its first gym facility. This space will serve as a community hub for the Green Valley Ranch, Montbello and Northfield neighborhoods of Denver.  Partners: Community First Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, and The Denver Foundation
Building Hope builds the capacity of charter schools nationwide by providing unparalleled facilities, financial, and operational services so that schools can focus on and devote more resources to educating students in underserved communities. NFF and BlueHub Capital are each providing Building Hope with a $1.4 million facility loan to finance the construction of a new charter school: Compass Rose Journey. The Compass Rose charter school network has a proven track record for providing its students – 90% of whom come from low-income households and 90% who identify as BIPOC – with a high-quality education. The Journey campus will be the third Compass Rose charter school in the San Antonio area and will enroll up to 740 students. Partners: BlueHub Capital
St. John's Episcopal Hospital offers emergency and ambulatory care to the densely populated, culturally and economically diverse, and medically underserved population of Far Rockaway, Queens and surrounding areas in New York. NFF and Capital Impact Partners each provided $5 million source loans for a $30 million project to construct a community clinic across the street from the hospital that will allow St. John's to expand the provision of primary care, mental health, and specialty care services on the Rockaway peninsula. This project will also free up much needed space at the hospital for critical inpatient services so that St. John's can continue to provide people of all faiths with comprehensive services - from preventive to rehabilitative - regardless of ability to pay.  Partners: Capital Impact Partners, CityScape Capital Group, New York City Regional Center, and Chase

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