USDA Rural Development

USDA Rural Development Program

What Is It

Self-Help works with the USDA Rural Development to offer the following lending programs for rural based nonprofits and small businesses:

• Community Facilities Guaranteed Loans
• Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans (B&I)

Community Facilities Guaranteed Loan: applicants who are either public entities or nonprofits and located in rural areas and towns of 20,000 people or less, can access up to a 90% guarantee on their Self-Help loan. This guarantee allows Self-Help to make loans  that we might not otherwise have been able to make because of weak collateral, high loan to values (limited borrower down payment), or special purpose buildings like schools. Self-Help has successfully utilized this program on multiple occasions in North Carolina and other states.

Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan: loan applicants, who are either a nonprofit or small business and located in rural areas and towns of 50,000 people or less, can access up to an 80% loan guarantee on their Self-Help loan.

Through the Intermediary Relending Program, Self-Help can offer loans to eligible small businesses at a fixed interest rate of 6-8% in the following eligible North Carolina counties: Anson, Buncombe, Burke, Caswell, Catawba, Graham, Iredell, Macon, McDowell, Rockingham, Surry, Swain, Watauga, and Wilkes County. In order to be eligible for an IRP loan borrowers must have been turned down by at least two other lenders and have letters to prove it. The IRP program has some restrictions on the types of activities that loan proceeds can be used for including: agricultural pursuits and loans to religious institutions.