Across the country, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) such as
IFF are changing lives. These specialized financial organizations support nonprofits, small businesses, and individuals in low-income areas who may have difficulty accessing traditional banking services. Their aim is to promote economic development, affordable housing, and community growth – and that is exactly how IFF is helping
Detroit Phoenix Center (DPC), and
Family Promise of West Michigan.
"By investing into our organization, they're also investing into the community, and hundreds of young people, potentially thousands, are going to be served," says Courtney Smith, Detroit Phoenix Center's CEO. "They're not like financial institutions that are sometimes focused just on profit. They were committed to seeing us fulfill our purpose and genuinely interested in supporting our mission."
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Courtney Smith is the CEO of Detroit Phoenix Center. Courtesy Photo
Since 2017, DPC has been providing critical resources, drop-in services, wrap-around support, and a safe, nurturing environment to young people ages 12-24 who are experiencing homelessness, a housing crisis, or instability. Recently, IFF closed a $430,000 loan that provided DPC with financing for the purchase of a 40 foot recreational vehicle (RV). DPC has since transformed it into a new mobile unit. It's allowed them to expand their reach to young people who cannot access DPC’s Detroit area building for services.
"I'm just ecstatic that we were able to work with them," says Lettice Crawford, IFF's director of lending. "They provide after-school enrichment programs, a drop-in center with hot meals, hygiene products, and a place where young people can wash and dry their clothes."
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Lettice Crawfod is the IFF director of lending for Michigan, and has worked with the Detroit Phoenix Center. Courtesy photo.
Crawford, who worked closely with Smith, adds, "but, there can be a kind of shame and a stigma of having to get to their location. DPC can now go out and meet young people where they are."
Equipped with a shower, bathroom, kitchenette, and gaming area, the RV meets young people's most critical needs. Youth can access resources ranging from food and bus tickets, to mental health support. The exterior beckons with bold graphics and empowering messages such as, "You are worthy."
"It's not just a bus, it's hope on wheels. We're creating a moving, hope-filled intervention," Smith explains. "This is how we meet young people's most critical needs."
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Detroit Phoenix Center's Youth Up Mobile Unit is equipped to bring support directly to youth in need. Courtesy Photo. She shares that IFF's investment was critically important for DPC as a growing organization and that the partnership went beyond traditional transactional relationships.
"As a homegrown leader, dealing with financial institutions can be a little intimidating, but IFF made the process simple. They walked us through every step from beginning to end," Smith says. "It wouldn't have been possible for us to bring the bus into fruition as quickly as we did, if it was not for IFF's investment."
Crawford is proud that IFF's unique approach allows them to support nonprofits in ways conventional banks can't. She underscores that she doesn't know of any other lender that provides non-appraisal based financing. Traditional lenders, Crawford explains, limit how much can be provided to a borrower by strictly looking at loan-to-value ratios.
"I think we're probably the only organization that does what we do,” she says.“I don't think anyone else is willing to take the risk. What we do really is unique, and it really is needed."
Scott Hackenberg, IFF's managing director of lending, says they "are more flexible with financing than anybody." He shares that a lot of banks can only lend up to a certain percentage of the loan-to-value based on an appraisal, with 75% loan-to-value being the typical standard. IFF will loan up to 95% — basically the purchase price or the renovation cost.
"A primary driver is to be able to provide services to communities and families that are typically underserved, and live in areas where there aren't enough social services to support them," Hackenberg says, "or, from an economic standpoint, families and communities that aren't able to afford services that are provided in other wealthier communities."
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Scott Hackenberg is IFF's managing director of lending. Courtesy photo.
The ways that CDFIs can transform communities for the better is something that Jim Davis, vice-president of business development at Family Promise of West Michigan (Family Promise), is deeply familiar with.
"We're really honored to be a part of some of IFF's early awards," he says. "I appreciate the holistic approach that IFF takes. They have such a thoughtfulness about neighborhood preservation and community."
IFF closed two loans totaling approximately $4.37 million that refinanced maturing debt held by Family Promise for two manufactured housing parks in Wyoming, MI and Gaines Township, MI, These parks serve households earning around 50% of the area median income.
In 2023, Family Promise purchased the mobile home parks — which include 26 homes owned by the organization, 46 resident-owned homes, and 13 vacant lots with financing from a traditional lender. A lower interest rate for the permanent financing from IFF will enable the organization to maintain the homes' affordability.
"It was hugely inspiring and impactful to know that we were saving 80 families from having to uproot and move somewhere else and take their kids out of school," Hackenberg says. "If you drive around, you'll come across a lot of manufactured home communities, so it's a big, important component of housing and home ownership."
Davis points to his organization's home ownership program, where they purchase and renovate manufactured housing and mobile homes. Family Promise is able to present a home to a family, who lives in it for up to a year while working with case management, paying their lot rent and their utilities. If they do that all 12 months, they are gifted the home, which is a $35,000 cost for Family Promise, from the beginning to the end.
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Jim Davis is the vice president of business development at Family Promise. Courtesy photo.
"We know that the number one way to change generational poverty is to give them an asset," Davis says. "One that they can take with them, that they can sell, that they can move, that they can retire in, that they can get to a child."
What started to happen, and continues to happen, he explains, is that out-of-town equity firms are systematically pushing out long-term residents through increasingly restrictive requirements. (For additional context, Davis shares that 93% of manufactured housing parks sold in 2024 were bought by out-of-town equity firms.)
"We got pissed," Davis says, "We watched manufactured housing parks being bought up by hedge funds and out-of-town equity firms who were changing rules in predatory ways, kicking out hard-working people who just needed a safe place to raise their children."
He explains that Family Promise first decided to purchase the two mobile home parks to ensure their program continues and to protect vulnerable families. They also think of it as a social enterprise. The profits from their for-profit parks streams directly into their nonprofit programming, supporting families who can't pay rent.
"We couldn't keep doing what we're doing without this refinance," Davis says. "We're grateful that IFF saw our hard work, prioritized it, and helped us acquire the funds that can help us change the narrative around manufactured housing here in West Michigan."
Hackenberg reports feeling personal satisfaction surrounding IFF's first deal focused on manufactured home-owners.
"We're preserving affordable housing for 80 families in perpetuity, and we know that they're not going to be displaced," he says. "We look forward to more of these types of transactions, not just for Family Promise, but for other nonprofits also."
Jaishree Drepaul is a writer and editor based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.