Responding to Community Housing Needs


Loan Fund

Mission

The NCALL Loan Fund provides innovative and flexible financing and services targeted to affordable housing and community development efforts to enhance borrower capacity to better serve low and moderate income communities.

What We Are

The NCALL Loan Fund is a certified Community Development Financial Institution, or CDFI. The Loan Fund received this designation from the Department of Treasury in October, 2004. The Loan Fund is also certified as a Community Development Entity, or CDE.

What is a CDFI?

CDFIs work in specific target markets that are underserved by traditional financial institutions. By providing a unique range of financial products and services, that are community development related, CDFIs invest in economically distressed target areas.

What We Do

The Loan Fund provides financing to qualified borrowers for the purpose of developing affordable housing, community based facilities and other community projects.

The types of projects that are financed include multi-family rental, homeownership development, commercial development, special needs housing and nonprofit facilities. Though this represents diversity in the types of loans NCALL provides, all loans must satisfy a “community benefit” threshold.

The Loan Fund provides its products in a “boutique financial service” manner. That is, we tailor the terms and conditions of each loan to the borrower and project. The size of the Fund (small but versatile) allows us to work closely with each borrower to ensure a full understanding of the financing process.


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About Us

The Loan Fund has two full-time employees:

Karen Kollias, Loan Fund Director

Karen has been the Fund’s Director since its inception in 2004 when she spearheaded the CDFI certification process. Karen provides the day-to-day guidance and oversight of the Fund. Her main responsibilities include loan underwriting, capitalization strategy, and ensuring the financial security and integrity of the Fund.

Ms. Kollias has more than 38 years of community development experience, of which 20 years have been in a lending capacity. Karen’s experience prior to joining the organization includes positions as a District Director with NeighborWorks America and Senior Vice President with ShoreBank, a nationally recognized community development bank.

You may contact Karen Kollias at 302-678-9400, x118 or e-mail

Dave Callahan, Loan Fund Manager

Dave joined the staff in 2006. He is responsible for the daily operations of the Loan Fund. Dave’s role includes portfolio management and servicing, loan closings, compliance reporting and customer service.

Prior to the Loan Fund, Dave worked for two community banks in the Loan Fund’s target area. His 15 years of service to those community-minded institutions allowed for a seamless transition to the Loan Fund and its mission.

You may contact Dave at 302-678-9400, x127 or e-mail.

Loan Fund Committee

The Loan Fund Committee is composed of five members from NCALL’s Board of Directors and NCALL’s Executive Director. The members have substantial experience in lending, banking, finance and community development. The Committee is the approving body for loan requests and policy development.

The members are:

  • Jeanine Kleimo, Chairperson and Board Vice President
  • Dan Kuennen, Board Treasurer
  • Randy Kunkle
  • Joe Myer, NCALL Executive Director
  • Roland Ridgeway, Board President
  • Helen Stewart

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Lending Information

Region

The target area for the NCALL Loan Fund is the Delmarva Peninsula. This encompasses the state of Delaware and the eastern shore counties of Maryland and Virginia. The Loan Fund is primarily focused on lending in rural areas. However, we strategically lend in some of the urban areas of New Castle County, Delaware.

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Borrowers

The Loan Fund lends to nonprofit institutions and to Limited Liability Corporations and Limited Partnerships where a nonprofit is the lead organization. The Loan Fund also lends to municipalities when those units of government act as the primary community development entity in the area.

Loan Products
  • Predevelopment
  • Acquisition
  • Construction
  • Bridge/gap financing
  • Credit enhancements and guarantees

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Capitalization

The Fund is proud of the strong community impact it has made during its brief existence. However, its success would not be possible were it not for the tremendous support received from its lending partners: investors and participant lenders.

These two groups provide the critical capital that the Loan Fund ultimately lends. Without this capital, the Fund would be unable to meet the financing needs of its borrowers. Without financing, the borrowers’ community development projects would not come to fruition.

Investors help capitalize the Loan Fund by making an investment into the Fund. This investment, averaging $1 million dollars, is then lent by the Fund to its borrowers to help finance their community projects. As the borrowers repay the loans, the Fund will reuse or “revolve” that money, lending it to other organizations for their worthy projects.

This process may continue for several years, depending on the term of the investment to the Loan Fund. Some investments are permanent capital, meaning the Fund has use of the money indefinitely. Other investments may be in the form of a loan to the Fund, with the requirement that the proceeds will be repaid by a certain date (usually two to 10 years). The Loan Fund has forged many strong relationships with investors during its brief tenure. To date, the Fund has received more than $6.7 million in investments.

Participant lenders are another important funding source for the Loan Fund. Although these groups do not provide capital to the Fund per se, they do play a critical financing role. These relationships provide financing on a “per project” basis. That is, they partner with the Loan Fund on a particular loan, agreeing to finance a portion of the project. The participant’s percentage of the loan amount will vary.

Participant lenders are especially needed when the loan amount for a project is too large for the Loan Fund to finance on its own. Participations allow the Fund to originate these larger deals, creating even greater community impact. More than $18 million in participation lending has been originated by the Fund to date. Coupled with the investments above, more than $24 million has been leveraged by the Loan Fund.

Please click here if you are interested in investing in the NCALL Loan Fund.

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Community Impact

NCALL Loan Fund’s mission is to invest in affordable housing and community development projects. These projects improve the economic and social opportunities for low income persons and communities.

The Fund tracks several criteria for monitoring adherence to its mission. For affordable housing projects, we track the number of affordable housing units financed, the levels of affordability, rental versus sales units and the dollars leveraged on each project financed. For community based facilities, the Fund tracks the service provided by the facility, the square footage developed, and the dollars leveraged on each project financed.

Although the “numbers” provide the quantitative data that are needed, the Loan Fund stays focused on what is behind the numbers – individuals and families that are provided greater opportunities because of our work.

CARS Rating

NCALL is pleased to announce that it is now a CARS rated Community Development Financial Institution. After a rigorous review of its community impact, financial strength, and public policy leadership, NCALL has earned a rating of AA+2.

The “AA” rating for impact is the second-highest rating in that category. It indicates NCALL has a “clear alignment of mission, strategies, activities and data” and that it is “using its resources effectively to benefit its target populations or communities in line with its mission”.

The “+” rating indicates NCALL “leads initiatives to change government policy to benefit the community development finance industry or disadvantaged people and communities.”

The “2” rating for financial strength and performance is also the second highest out of 5 possible ratings in this category. This evaluation is performed similar to the CAMEL evaluation that commercial banks undergo. The rating indicates that NCALL, with specific emphasis on the Loan Fund, “exhibits solid financial strength, performance, and risk management practices” and that “challenges are well within the board of directors’ and management’s capabilities.” To put this rating into perspective, there are less than a handful of CDFIs throughout the country that have been rated a “1”.

CARS (CDFI Assessment and Rating System) is a comprehensive analysis of CDFIs provided as a service of the Opportunity Finance Network. The goal of CARS is to help CDFIs move toward a more standardized and transparent presentation of their financial and community impact information. Organizations that invest in CDFIs often subscribe to CARS and receive ratings reports, which help to guide their investment decision making process. Fewer than 10% of all CDFIs nationwide have undergone a CARS rating. NCALL sees great value in third-party examinations as the organization is committed to transparency and rigorous performance standards.

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