About Us

Celebrating 30+ Years of Grassroots Economic Development

The New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund (dba the Loan Fund) is a nonprofit community lender providing loans and lines of credit to small businesses, business startups, and nonprofits throughout New Mexico that typically are unable to obtain financing through traditional lending sources.   TheLoan Fund also provides clients with consulting and training services. The Loan Fund is one of 11 U.S. Treasury Department certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) in New Mexico.

The Loan Fund was founded by the New Mexico Conference of Churches (along with the Storehouse, Samaritan Counseling Services, Habitat for Humanity, Encino Houses, and Second Harvest), under the guidance of a special task force created in 1987 to address the state’s systemic problem of poverty. At the time, New Mexico was number one nationally in poverty, and today the state is number three. The task force concluded entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities were vital to the New Mexico, and increasing access to affordable business loans in underserved and low and moderate income communities would be a viable economic development tool to combat poverty.

The Loan Fund officially incorporated in 1989. The organization made its first six loans in 1990, and four of those businesses are still in operation today. Over the last 30 years, The Loan Fund has made over $108 million in loans to New Mexico’s financially underserved small businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofits, which have helped create or preserve over 11,500 jobs across the state.