JPMorgan Chase announced its $10 million commitment to the Chicago Community Loan Fund to assist in the small business and retail storefront development in Chicago’s South and West sides.
“We want our support for the South and West sides to be sustainable and to encourage others to see the benefits of investing here too,” JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
The Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable financing to low-income areas for community development. JPMorgan Chase’s capital commitment to the organization is set to create sustainable loan programs and attract additional outside capital for the CCLF and is part of JPMorgan Chase’s greater initiative to create economic opportunity in Chicago.
“This new investment propels CCLF’s strategic commitment to increase commercial retail in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago,” CCLF President Calvin L. Holmes said in a statement. “This substantial infusion of capital by JPMorgan Chase will allow our borrowers to generate jobs for local residents and help their entrepreneurial tenants of color dismantle barriers to their economic empowerment.”
JPMorgan Chase and CCLF have partnered in the past through JPMorgan Chase’s $3.5 million philanthropic investment in 2016. The capital helped provide a total of $532,000 in microloans to small businesses.
The company announced a $40 million three-year philanthropic pledge to help Chicago’s economic development back in 2017. Since then, JPMorgan Chase has launched the $5.5 million Chicago Entrepreneurs of Color Fund and provided seed funding to Community Investment Corporation to launch the Chicago Opportunity Investment Fund.
