NEW YORK–Inclusiv is reporting it has now invested $500 million in community development credit unions (CDCUs), “bringing deeply needed capital to underinvested communities throughout urban, rural, and reservation-based areas across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.”

According to Inclusiv, the milestone highlights its longstanding commitment to driving capital to reach historically disinvested people and communities with affordable and high-impact financing. 

“As a CDFI and the national intermediary for investing in community development credit unions, Inclusiv creates innovative financing tools, like secondary capital, subordinated debt and deposits to build net worth and leverage capital,” the organization stated.

A ’Leading Investor’

Inclusiv said it is also the leading investor in social impact deposits for loan capital.  

“For more than 40 years, Inclusiv has channeled public and private investments to support CDCUs’ growth and impact,” President and CEO Cathie Mahon said in a statement. “We advocated for the creation of secondary capital in 1997 with the goal of enabling credit unions to lend deeper in their communities, introduce new products, grow their deposits and service area while maintaining substantial net worth to fuel this growth. We have been so pleased to bring the first secondary capital and, this year, social impact deposit investments from the mainland U.S. to cooperativas in Puerto Rico.” 

The First Credit Union

Added Kevin Mietlicki, CEO of Alternatives Federal Credit Union, in a statement, “As the first credit union to use secondary capital from Inclusiv to support our growth back in 1997, Alternatives congratulates Inclusiv on reaching the milestone of directing $500 million in investment to the community development credit union movement. Our credit union’s secondary capital investments supported us at a pivotal time in our history, helping us increase our assets (from $22 million in 1997 to $168 million today), fueling lending growth that put us on the path to our current success,” 

Additional Highlights

According to Inclusiv, additional highlights of the work include:

• Launch of the Southern Equity Fund, the first-ever impact fund for credit unions which raised $45 million in private capital from cross-sectoral investors to create economic opportunities across the region. “Through the Southern Equity Fund, we invested in credit unions serving more than 646,000 members of low-income earning communities and communities of color in 17 states, creating economic opportunity across the region,” Inclusiv said. “Since the investment of these funds, participating CDCUs have created wealth building opportunities through homeownership by providing more than $2.2 billion in mortgages serving close to 12,000 homeowners and their families nationwide. “They also strengthened local economies and developed asset building opportunities by supporting local business and development projects. Southern Equity Fund investees have invested nearly $1.4 billion back into local economies by providing capital access to more than 2,309 locally owned businesses and development projects.
• Creation of the Inclusiv Impact Deposits Fund, through which it said it has mobilized $100 million from partners across banking, philanthropy and publicly traded corporations including Bank of America, Costco Wholesale Corporation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Kataly Foundation, Mercy Partnership Fund, and others to invest in social impact deposits in CDCUs, including cooperativas in Puerto Rico that are gaining access to mainland social impact deposits for the first time through our Fund.