Clearinghouse CDFI Sees Payoff of Giving Something Back to Its Communities
B Corp Financial Institution Supports Internship Program as Investment in Next Generation
This article was created in partnership with Clearinghouse CDFI.
Reflecting the “community” in its name, Clearinghouse CDFI is a Community Development Financial Institution that goes beyond the norm in the lending market. By providing innovative and affordable financial services to underserved people and community development projects that benefit these groups, Clearinghouse CDFI actively seeks ways to give something back to its communities.
A Certified B Corporation since 2014, Clearinghouse CDFI focuses on lending for projects that create affordable housing, revitalize blighted areas, rehabilitate needed community centers, and improve their neighborhoods. This inclusive community development focus helped Clearinghouse CDFI earn 2019 Best For The World honors as a Changemaker — B Corps with impact score improvement in the top 20% — as well as in the Customer, Governance, and Overall categories.
Doug Bystry, President and CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI, says these achievements are a product of Clearinghouse CDFI’s B Corp committee, which works to embed B Corp values into the company’s everyday operations.
“One recent example is our engagement with a consultant to improve teamwork and inclusive decision-making throughout our loan process,” Bystry says. “This effort was led by the B Corp committee and resulted in a ‘Bill of Rights’ for our loan customers that ensures a great experience and empowers them to provide the greatest impact in their respective communities.”
Those communities extend from southern California — where Clearinghouse CDFI was founded in 1996 — to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Sovereign Nations in the United States. Bystry says the B Corp’s loans help borrowers in these communities create change in their neighborhoods, establish financial strength, and ultimately gain access to additional financing sources.
“Clearinghouse CDFI’s loans provide flexible yet affordable financing for projects that would not otherwise come to fruition in distressed and underserved communities,” he says. “These projects create affordable housing, develop Federally Qualified Health Clinics in medically underserved areas, and allow minority-owned businesses and nonprofits to acquire real estate when the market denies them access.”
The 2019 Best For The World Honorees are building a more inclusive, regenerative economy focused on having a positive impact for all stakeholders.
By the numbers, Clearinghouse CDFI projects in 2018 collectively:
- Created 2,400 jobs.
- Supplied 1,000 units of affordable housing.
- Provided health care, wraparound support, and other services to 50,000 families in high-poverty communities.
The B Corp’s efforts as a for-profit business operating as a force for good adds up. Since its inception, Clearinghouse CDFI has funded $1.8 billion in loans for more than 1,860 projects benefitting 670 separate underserved communities throughout the U.S. and rehabilitating 18 million square feet of blighted properties. These projects have created or retained 20,000 jobs, 7,500 affordable housing units, and served 1.8 million people.
Building Bridges for the Future
Beyond its financial services, the B Corp finds ways to give something back to its communities through an internship program that provides professional experience for college-bound high school juniors and seniors from low-income families. The Allen Peters Baldwin ‘B’ BOLD Internship Award Program was launched in 2016 after Bystry was inspired by a call for inclusion to the B Corp community.
“The idea for Clearinghouse CDFI’s ‘B’ BOLD internship program stemmed from a Champions Retreat where attendees were asked to commit to ‘building bridges,’” Bystry says. “We were so inspired by the retreat that we decided to evolve our commitment into full implementation. We knew from the outset that we wanted to build bridges to help empower and develop the next generation.”
Through the ‘B’ BOLD program, the Clearinghouse CDFI interns build creative and critical thinking skills and plan for their futures. Each year, two participants get the opportunity to explore postsecondary and job opportunities, participate in mock interviews, gain exposure to industry professionals, and build their resumes.
“Economic opportunity begins long before someone needs a loan in adulthood,” Bystry says. “The ‘B’ BOLD program helps foster this opportunity for tomorrow’s college-bound leaders hailing from low-income households.”
The interns also see firsthand that companies can make a profit while also making a difference in their communities, Bystry says, and hopefully learn that they can be a force for positive change in the world.
“We are still inspired today, four years later, not only by the program’s capacity for impact in a young person’s life but also by the students themselves,” he says. “Their tenacity is humbling.”
And while the interns gain experience and knowledge to propel them forward to new opportunities, Bystry says the interns give something back to the Clearinghouse CDFI team as well.
“In a world full of division and crisis, fostering the next generation of intelligent, compassionate, and driven individuals inspires our hope for the future,” he says. “They will continue to build bridges long after we are gone.”
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
