One loan at a time, CCLF has helped transform ambitious ideas into institutions that serve Chicago communities.
A major tennis center serving African American youth. An award-winning arts institution housed in a long-vacant bank. An urban farm that grows fresh food and provides paid job training. A South Shore supper club that brings together jazz, culture and community programs. These South Side institutions grew from bold ideas, and the Chicago Community Loan Fund helped give those ideas a chance.
For 35years, CCLF has financed projects that conventional lenders often consider too risky. Its investments have helped community leaders build institutions that create jobs, expand opportunity, preserve culture and strengthen neighborhoods.
Kamau Murray’s story reflects that mission. As a young tennis player, Murray earned a full scholarship to Florida A&M University. He later set out to introduce more inner-city youth to tennis while opening educational pathways for them. Many lenders saw risk in the proposal. CCLF saw its potential.
That vision became XS Tennis, a state-of-the-art facility built on land where the Robert Taylor Homes once stood. Other funders also supported the project, while CCLF provided crucial early belief and financing that helped move Murray’s dream toward reality.
Artist Theaster Gates brought a similar vision to a vacant bank building on Stony Island Avenue. The structure had sat empty for decades, yet Gates imagined a home for Black art, archives, exhibitions and community programs. CCLF helped support that vision. Today, the restored building is the nationally recognized Stony Island Arts Bank.
In Englewood, vacant lots and disinvestment once shaped much of the neighborhood’s public image. Urban agriculture offered a different path. Local planners envisioned land producing healthy food, paid employment and training for residents who had faced barriers to work. CCLF financed the organization behind that effort, which has trained and employed more than 400 Chicagoans.
The Quarry in South Shore adds another dimension to CCLF’s impact. The event rental space that also transforms into a supper club presents live jazz and serves as a preferred meeting, entertainment, and education venue. Its parent organization, Real Men Charities, serves as a valued community hub and healthy destination with chefs and programs meeting community needs, with trainings, education and its signature annual event, Real Men Cook. CCLF financing of TheQuarry helped sustain and extend a 3-decade-long legacy of service and cultural celebrations in the heart of the community.
XS Tennis, the Stony Island Arts Bank, Englewood’s urban agriculture work and The Quarry represent a small sample of CCLF’s reach. Each began with someone who could see possibility where others saw uncertainty. For 35 years, the Chicago Community Loan Fund has supplied the financing that helps South Side visionaries turn those possibilities into places that serve and grow communities.
