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 are typically unable to obtain financing through traditional lending sources. The Loan Fund also provides clients with consulting and training services. 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 two. The task force concluded entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities were vital to the state, 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 was 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 26 years, The Loan Fund has made over $68 million in loans to New Mexico's financially underserved small businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofits, which have helped create or preserve over 8,300 jobs across the state.
