Loans: Workforce Development
Featured Loan: Sure We Can
Ensuring fairer incomes for Brooklyn canners
$250,000 bridge loan (March 2022)
Sure We Can (SWC) is a nonprofit recycling center, community space, and sustainability hub in Brooklyn, New York where canners – people who collect cans and bottles from streets to make a living – come together with students and neighbors through recycling, composting, gardening, and arts. Founded by canners for canners, SWC addresses the economic, emotional, educational, and language barriers that limit canners’ full participation in society.
New York City’s 1983 “Bottle Bill” allows people to generate a modest income by collecting and redeeming discarded cans and bottles. Canning is physically demanding, logistically complex, and often emotionally demeaning, yet for many non-English speaking immigrants and unhoused neighbors, it is the only available source of income. SWC helps canners make a living by redeeming returnable cans and paying these New Yorkers the full $0.05 refund per container, as required by law, and up to 20-25% added value for sorted containers, which is not required by law. In addition, SWC’s gardening, composting, and art initiatives facilitate civic engagement and spur economic growth by creating opportunities for canners and community members to gather.
When canners deposit cans and bottles at SWC, the nonprofit pays them immediately. However, SWC occasionally experiences reimbursement delays from distributors, causing cash flow challenges for operations. Financed through NFF’s zero-interest CARE Fund, this loan will help SWC smooth over this cash flow issue, ensuring that it has enough money available to pay rent, staff salaries, and compensate the canners who need that money most. As SWC continues to grow with more than 400 canners now in its community – and millions of cans and bottles recovered each year – it will promote social inclusion, environmental awareness, and economic empowerment.
Hot Bread Kitchen: Cooking up careers in the New York City food industry
$250,000 working capital loan (May 2023)
This financing will support Hot Bread Kitchen in smoothing out cash flow gaps as it awaits reimbursement for work performed, particularly as it gets a new apprenticeship program up and running. It will help preserve internal cash reserves and support any working capital needs necessary to hire more staff as their programs continue to expand.
First Step Staffing: Economic opportunity for all
$1.5 million participation in a $4.5 million working capital loan (April 2023)
Nonprofit Finance Fund was one of the investors in First Step Staffing’s expansion into Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and this will be NFF’s fourth loan with First Step.
Partners: The Reinvestment Fund, REDF
Mandela Partners: A space where food entrepreneurs can thrive
$93,000 working capital loan (November 2021)
In looking toward future opportunities to better serve local entrepreneurs and community residents in a post-COVID-19 environment, Mandela Partners developed plans for a community kitchen that would increase the production capacity of current vendors and local food business owners, allow for test kitchen and hands-on workshop opportunities for burgeoning food entrepreneurs, and provide much-needed space for community-building events. Financed through NFF's zero-interest CARE Fund, this loan will be used for renovations and kitchen equipment for the new space – investments that will support Bay Area food entrepreneurs and thriving communities.
Latino Leadership Institute: Leadership training for Latino professionals in Colorado
$250,000 working capital loan through the Metro Denver Nonprofit Loan Fund (August 2021)
Established in 2014 under the University of Denver, LLI recently spun off into a fully independent nonprofit. This loan will ensure that LLI has a runway of funding in its first few months as a new organization to build out the infrastructure it needs to scale its programs to more individuals and businesses.
WorkLife Partnership: Supporting fulfilling careers in Colorado
$250,000 working capital loan through the Metro Denver Nonprofit Loan Fund (August 2021)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WorkLife launched its Small Dollar Loans Program in March 2020 to provide employees of corporate clients with safe and affordable loans for emergency expenses. This loan will allow WorkLife to expand this program, ensuring that even more of the people they support can access cash when they need it at rates they can afford.
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