Kresge Foundation Employs New Funding Methods in its First Quarter Grant Awards of Nearly $...(ty-development effort to strengthen the ...),Health

Three green planning grants were made as part of Kresge's Green Building Initiative. These grants underwrite the integrated design process necessary for historic preservation, green renovation or new construction that aims to achieve the highest levels of environmental sustainability.

For the first time, 10 organizations were awarded one or a combination of program-related investments, growth-capital grants or program-support grants.

A complete list of the awards made, organized by state, is below.

Community-based health care, community revitalization

Kresge made a $2.5 million, five-year program-related investment in IFF Loan Fund and Advisory Services of Chicago. IFF, a community development financial institution, provides below-market rate real-estate loans and other services to nonprofit health, human service and education organizations.

The investment enables IFF, which expanded its lending and advisory programs to Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin in 2005, to finance new loans and leverage its increased portfolio to solicit new bank and foundation investments.

"IFF is a high-performing organization that is actively advancing our values," Rapson says. "It has a track record of building financially sound organizations through its loan and advisory services - work that is essential to community revitalization."

"The primary purpose of program-related investments is to provide access to capital to institutions like IFF that would not be able to secure conventional loans," he adds. "A second benefit is the below-market interest rate."

Kresge also awarded IFF a $500,000 growth-capital grant to support the expansion of its staff and business operations. Growth-capital grants support specific efforts such as retooling, transition, or, as is the case with IFF, scaling efforts that con
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