C3 Impact Fund Seeks To Spur Growth In Underserved Communities Through Real estate

Tiffany Taylor is the Executive Director of C3 Impact Fund. Photo provided by Tiffany Taylor.
Tiffany Taylor is the Executive Director of C3 Impact Fund. Photo provided by Tiffany Taylor.

C3 Impact Fund Seeks To Spur Growth In Underserved Communities Through Real estate

By Tia Carol Jones

Across the country, community development financial institutions (CDFI) are providing financial opportunities to businesses and individuals in underserved communities. Locally, the C3 Impact Fund is working to empower underserved neighborhoods through real estate.

Renovo Financial was founded by Kevin Werner and Daniel Rosen as a real estate lending firm. It created the C3 Impact Fund to catalyze development in low- and moderate-income communities as a way to close the wealth gap and create local jobs. It provides capital to real estate investors, who have been left out of traditional financing products and who revitalize single family and multi-unit properties in underserved communities. Tiffany Taylor is the Executive Director of the C3 Impact Fund and Aloni Harris works with the C3 Impact Fund as a loan officer.

According to Harris, the C3 Impact Fund, a subsidiary of Renovo Financial, focuses on residential properties for fix and flip loans for real estate investors looking to fix and flip homes in underserved communities. As the loan officer, Harris deploys capital, acts as a business development officer, provides technical assistance and various resources for investors and developers.

Harris said that community development financial institutions (CDFI) like C3 are reimagining real estate investment in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods by getting away from a lot of the red tape and figuring out how to be able to support those who have historically been left out of those  conversations, especially in real estate development, especially in the areas that C3 is focused on.

 She said C3 lends exclusively to real estate investors and developers on the south and west sides of Chicago and in similar communities in Boston, Texas, North Carolina and Florida. She said C3 is intentional in providing capital to support the development in those communities, whether it is homeowner opportunities for the end buyer or creating opportunities for the investor, which is where Harris comes in. She provides capital and follows along the track of being a partner, not just in a funding sense, but also in wealth building strategies and ensuring flipping home goals.

“That’s what differentiates, I think, a CDFI from any traditional lender is that added step of wanting to, not only just provide capital, but also provide a sense of partnership and a sense of business strategy and support in the long term,’ she said.

Harris said that in her personal portfolio, she works a lot with people who look like her, a Black woman. She said the thing that C3 does really good is providing capital and mirroring capital with technical assistance and in the search for capital, recognizing what barriers exist for real estate investors who come from the communities that C3 is servicing. She said, for example, wanting to operate in the low to moderate income space, they want a developer that cares about the community, oftentimes that developer is going to be a product or someone from that community.

“We want to make sure a lot of those check box items that may keep them away from being bankable or may keep them away from other traditional lending opportunities are not going to be a barrier for them,” she said. She added that C3 has “relaxed” its guidelines, in comparison to their parent company because C3 recognizes that everyone is not going to come to them and have a $250,000 net worth and that isn’t something they need to place as a hard guidance to fund.

Harris said the goal with C3 is meeting developers and investors where they are. They are looking to support the emerging space of investors and developers and growing their portfolio to be what is considered fully experienced, fully recognized, fully established development space. She said when she is working with her portfolio she is intentional to help those emerging investors and developers track their growth so they can see the fruits of their labor.

For more information about Renovo Financial, visit renovofinancial.com. For more information about the C3 Impact Fund, visit c3.fund.



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