Category: Community Banking
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Inside a Place-Based Strategy: Lessons from Southern Virginia
Place-based investing is gaining renewed attention among impact investors. For some, it reflects a shift toward geography as a way to target impact. For others, it signals a deeper recognition that capital alone is not enough to drive durable outcomes. What is emerging is a more grounded approach to investing, one that starts not with…
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Scaling Clean Energy Access in Low and Moderate Income Communities
Locus Bank’s partnership with Redball Energy illustrates how well-structured credit can unlock scalable clean energy deployment while expanding access to underserved markets. Redball Energy, headquartered in Washington, DC and founded in 2021, provides financing solutions for residential and commercial solar projects that often fall outside traditional underwriting models. By partnering with developers and installers, the…
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Why Down Payment Assistance Can Change the Homeownership Equation
For many families, the hardest part of buying a home is not the monthly mortgage payment. It is getting through the front door. Down payment assistance is designed to address that barrier. These programs help qualified buyers cover upfront costs such as the down payment, closing costs, or both. Assistance may come in the form…
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How CNote Uses Impact Data to Match Deposits with Community Impact
Every participating bank and credit union in CNote’s network provides core impact data that helps us understand the scale and reach of their lending. At a minimum, participating institutions report the total number and dollar amount of loans they originated along with the percent originated into key under-resourced communities. That baseline information is important. It…
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Business Consortium Fund: Financing the Businesses That Power America’s Supply Chains
For nearly four decades, Business Consortium Fund (BCF), has operated in a part of the small business ecosystem that many lenders overlook but that is critical to how the U.S. economy actually functions: the supply chains of large corporations and government agencies. Founded in 1987, BCF was built to expand access to capital for small…
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Shining a New Path: How Rural North Carolina Is Harnessing Solar Power With Community Capital
Shining a New Path: How Rural North Carolina Is Harnessing Solar Power With Community Capital In Scotland County, in the heart of rural North Carolina, the challenge of building a cleaner and more resilient energy future has been quietly mounting for years. Like many rural communities across the Southeast, the county has faced limited access…
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From Intent to Deployment: How Impact Matching Works
A more precise way to align capital with impact: moving beyond broad allocation toward targeted, real-world deployment. Investors often express a desire to support underserved communities. The more difficult question is how to ensure that capital is deployed where it is actually needed and aligned with specific impact priorities. Impact matching is the process of translating investor…
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Expanding Access to Care: How Optus Bank Helped a Physician Grow Community Well-Being
For years, Dr. Damon Daniels saw a painful gap in his community: many families struggled to access reliable, high-quality healthcare close to home. As a practicing physician, he watched patients delay appointments, travel long distances, or forgo care entirely. He knew the community needed more than a clinic—it needed a place where people felt seen,…
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Empowering Recovery and Renewal: Vantage Point Wellness and Baltimore Community Lending
In the heart of Baltimore, Vantage Point Wellness LLC (VPW) shines as a beacon of renewal for individuals rebuilding their lives after addiction. Founded by Lauren Simone, VPW offers residential treatment programs that help clients transition from detox to independent living—providing structure, counseling, job preparation, and critical life-management support. Lauren’s mission was born from profound…
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What We Mean by Investing Where Your Employees Live, and Customers Buy
In today’s economy, the concept of corporate responsibility is evolving. It’s no longer enough for companies to focus solely on financial returns; where that money is working matters just as much. At CNote, when we talk about investing where your employees live and customers buy, we mean something both simple and powerful: using your corporate…