When people have access to the opportunities provided by living in healthy communities, they can break through barriers to success. As a mission-driven nonprofit lender, we work to achieve this vision by creatively delivering needed capital to the projects that support economic development and healthy communities, including nutritious food programs, job training centers, health and education facilities, and mixed-use and affordable housing. We realize the importance of fostering deep connections with communities to understand their needs and work with them to achieve their goals. 

We initially focused our community development lending on three Priority Cities–Detroit, Michigan; La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Wilmington, Delaware–places where we have roots and relationships and can leverage our work, marketing knowledge, past investments and relationships to maximize our impact. We’ve also implemented a longer term goal to expand our program to Cinnaire’s larger footprint across the Midwest and MidAtlantic. 

Cinnaire is digging deep in these key locations to provide support services to local developers and nonprofits, especially those owned by People of Color, to bring community development real estate projects to fruition. We work in partnership with other CDFIs in these cities to increase the flow of accessible capital and capacity.