During 2021, we were exceptionally fortunate to have the continuing support of so many of you – our VCLF friends, donors, investors, stakeholders and champions!
In 2020, we leveraged our partnership with the US Economic Development Authority to secure a grant to capitalize our Northern Vermont Recovery Loan Fund, which provided COVID-19 relief financing to small businesses in Vermont’s northernmost counties. Thanks to the generous support of a private donor, we were able to keep this critical relief program going, and expand it statewide when the EDA funding ran out. The rechristened Vermont Recovery Loan Fund was (re-)launched in October, 2021.To date, we’ve made nine NVRLF/VRLF loans totaling $1,035,000.
VCLF’s SPROUT program has provided low-cost financing and free-to-the-borrower business development services for working lands development entrepreneurs since 2016. Previously supported exclusively by the state’s Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, demand for SPROUT loans was projected to exceed the available funding this year…until a longtime friend of the Loan Fund was moved to make a major gift this spring, recapitalizing the program to the tune of over $600,000 in future SPROUT lending. Since 2016, 27 businesses have accessed SPROUT funding totaling $940,500.
More and more, philanthropic support has played a critical role in the re-capitalization of core loan programs like these, and in the development of new initiatives like our Justice Forward Fund (launching in early 2022). Gifts like these help us build on our critical core work, and innovate new strategies for social, economic and racial justice.
We are grateful to ALL of the Loan Fund's donors, grantors and impact investors: YOU are the Community in the Vermont Community Loan Fund. Thank you for making our work possible.
During 2021, we were exceptionally fortunate to have the continuing support of so many of you – our VCLF friends, donors, investors, stakeholders and champions!
In 2020, we leveraged our partnership with the US Economic Development Authority to secure a grant to capitalize our Northern Vermont Recovery Loan Fund, which provided COVID-19 relief financing to small businesses in Vermont’s northernmost counties. Thanks to the generous support of a private donor, we were able to keep this critical relief program going, and expand it statewide when the EDA funding ran out. The rechristened Vermont Recovery Loan Fund was (re-)launched in October, 2021.To date, we’ve made nine NVRLF/VRLF loans totaling $1,035,000.
VCLF’s SPROUT program has provided low-cost financing and free-to-the-borrower business development services for working lands development entrepreneurs since 2016. Previously supported exclusively by the state’s Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, demand for SPROUT loans was projected to exceed the available funding this year…until a longtime friend of the Loan Fund was moved to make a major gift this spring, recapitalizing the program to the tune of over $600,000 in future SPROUT lending. Since 2016, 27 businesses have accessed SPROUT funding totaling $940,500.
More and more, philanthropic support has played a critical role in the re-capitalization of core loan programs like these, and in the development of new initiatives like our Justice Forward Fund (launching in early 2022). Gifts like these help us build on our critical core work, and innovate new strategies for social, economic and racial justice.
We are grateful to ALL of the Loan Fund's donors, grantors and impact investors: YOU are the Community in the Vermont Community Loan Fund. Thank you for making our work possible.