Cultural and Nonprofit Facilities Funds

Summary:

In some communities, revolving funds exist to assist nonprofits with financing construction and upgrading of facilities.

Philadelphia's Cultural Facilities Fund Investigates
Expansion

The Cultural Facilities Fund in Philadelphia, which makes
loans to local art and cultural nonprofit organizations for
capital improvements, may soon expand its mission to include
all nonprofits.

With funding from the William Penn Foundation, the organization has been working on a needs study since February,
surveying 700 local nonprofits, and will also consult banks,
foundations, and other grantmakers. The fund will decide
what action to take based on the results of the study,
which should be completed by the end of 1998.

"It might mean we become the Nonprofit Facilities Fund in
Philadelphia, encompassing all of the nonprofit community,"
said Nancy Burd, the fund's manager. "With the government
relying more...on nonprofits to provide services...the
stress and strain on those buildings is increasing."
i>Philanthropy News Digest, September 2, 1998 (Volume 4, Issue 35).

If the fund does expand its mission, it would become a
Philadelphia version of its New York-based parent organization, the Nonprofit Facilities Fund, which makes capital- mprovement loans to all types of nonprofits. In addition
to Philadelphia, that fund has branches in Boston, Chicago,
and San Francisco, which also only lend money to cultural
nonprofit groups.

Both the Cultural Facilities Fund and the Nonprofit Facilities Fund are community development financial institutions
that make loans from a revolving fund to nonprofits that
need to improve or replace their buildings. In addition to
the loans, which typically are made to nonprofits that do
not have the collateral to borrow from traditional lenders,
the funds provide the groups with assistance, to ensure that
the projects for which they borrow money get done smoothly;
that the buildings will be taken care of once they're built;
and that the organizations develop to the point that they
can get bank loans. This ultimately will make it easier for
the groups to obtain funding from foundations and other
grantmakers.

Key, Peter. "Cultural Fund May Expand." Philadelphia
Business Journal Online 8/24/98.

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