Invest in Your Neighbors’ Future With the Vermont Community Loan Fund

Claire Zhu and her two kids, ages 9 and 12, are avid snowboarders. But when they were younger, Zhu struggled to find high-quality gear that kept them warm on the mountain. Five years ago, she decided to solve that problem for herself and other parents like her by starting her own children’s outerwear brand, Hootie Hoo. 

A Saint George resident, Zhu had worked as a product manager at Burton for nine years. That experience gave her confidence that she could fill the gap in the market. There was just one problem: Zhu could not find a bank to finance the idea. 

“Lenders prioritize less risky projects, and as a startup, we didn’t have anything,” she said. That’s when she reached out to the Vermont Community Loan Fund, a mission-driven alternative lender working to create a just and thriving Vermont. VCLF was able to offer her a loan backed by the Small Business Administration, giving her the boost she needed to get started. 

Since then, Zhu has steadily grown her business every year. Big-name retail stores such as evo and REI now stock Hootie Hoo products. Ski magazine named Hootie Hoo as its best kids’ ski jackets for 2026. Because her enterprise is seasonal, Zhu relies on loans to supply big orders to retail partners, who won’t pay for the products until they’re received. “We’re always able to pay back on time and right away,” she added. 

Zhu said her business wouldn’t be where it is without VCLF: “I would’ve had to find outside investors, and that would have taken so much more time.” 

The Vermont Community Loan Fund was formed in 1987 as a response to the tightening of federal affordable housing funding during the Reagan administration. “At that time, a lot of states came up with their own mechanisms for funding housing,” said Jake Ide, director of investment and philanthropy at VCLF. “If the federal government was going to pull back money, we were going to come up with a solution of our own.” 

The fix was as Vermont as you can get: regular folks coming together to solve a problem. Impact investments from community members could be collected and repurposed as flexible loans to affordable housing developers, local businesses and other projects that might be considered too risky for traditional bank loans.

Loans from VCLF such as Zhu’s are a result of impact investing. While it is similar to traditional investing, impact investing isn’t focused only on financial returns. Impact investors direct their funds toward people and initiatives that result in both financial gains for the investor and positive outcomes for the broader community.

Although impact investing aligns with many of the goals of philanthropy, there is a difference. The funds are invested rather than donated. Impact investors at the Vermont Community Loan Fund are repaid their funds in full, with interest, at maturity; until then, their money continues to circulate into new projects across the state. 

While VCLF was initially created to support such affordable housing projects, its goal is to support the community, or, as Ide put it, anything that addresses the larger issues that affect communities in Vermont today. 

Over the years, VCLF has grown. With offices centrally located in Montpelier, its lending projects have touched virtually every Vermont town and village, in every corner of the state. In addition to affordable housing projects, its portfolio now includes local businesses, childcare programs and other nonprofits — a total of 318 loans that represent more than $40 million in impact capital. Where a traditional investor might see a $40 million portfolio, VCLF and the impact investors that drive it see the deeper impacts beyond the dollars: employment for 2,300 Vermonters; affordable homes for 1,200 Vermont households, families, individuals and seniors; quality early care for almost 1,700 children and families; and essential quality-of-life services for more than 191,000 Vermonters.

“There are positive community impacts with every loan we make.” 

JAKE IDE

“There are positive community impacts with every loan we make,” Ide said. “Even when we’re not lending directly to folks who’ve been denied access, we’re still lending to businesses, programs and projects that benefit Vermonters who need us most. Ultimately, that’s what our impact investors are investing in: a stronger, more resilient, more inclusive Vermont.”

Because of the fast growth of Zhu’s business, she was able to apply for additional support through VCLF’s Justice Forward Fund, which supports BIPOC Vermonters. The fund has a simpler application and quicker decision process, as well as no minimum collateral requirements, to better serve Vermonters who have historically struggled to access capital from traditional lenders and financial systems. What does that mean for Hootie Hoo? Zhu will be able to hire another full-time employee in addition to herself. She’s also planning to rent an office instead of working in her garage. 

Doing Some Good

Who can be a VCLF impact investor? Just about everyone. “You don’t need to have high net worth,” Ide said. “A lot of people hear the word ‘investment’ and think that it’s for someone of a specific economic status, but we have investment options for folks at all levels.” 

VCLF investments can range from a minimum of $1,000 to well over $1 million. “There’s a huge mix of people from different backgrounds that make our work possible, and it all has an impact,” Ide said. 

VCLF is certified by the U.S. Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution, or CDFI. These are lenders with a mission to provide fair, responsible financing to communities that haven’t had access to it previously. Unlike traditional banks, CDFIs specialize in helping under-resourced communities. 

Impact investing with VCLF is easy. On its website, you can apply to become an impact investor through a quick form, then set up how you’ll move the money. You decide how long to invest and how you’ll receive the interest you’ll earn. When your impact investment matures, you can choose to be repaid or reinvest. “Nine out of 10 of our investors choose to renew,” Ide added. 

One of the reasons Renee Reiner, who co-owns Phoenix Books with her husband, Michael DeSanto, invests with VCLF is to support projects such as housing. Renee opened two impact investments at VCLF, one supporting the organization’s general lending and one dedicated specifically to the organization’s affordable housing work, which she described as both important to her and a pressing community need. 

“VCLF are experts in the philanthropic sector,” she said. “Their work is boots on the ground, learning about the community and the community’s needs.” 

After Reiner’s father passed in 2020, she was in a position to do more philanthropic work, and VCLF was one of the organizations that she researched and reached out to. As a small-business owner who has applied for loans from banks and been rejected in the past, she recognized that VCLF’s work strongly aligns with her values. 

“We had to jump through so many hoops [to apply for a traditional loan], and in the end the bank still said no. The fact that a small-business owner can go to the Loan Fund and actually get that loan, to me that is terrific,” she said. “It is extraordinary that they are a place that can say yes when banks have to say no.” 

VCLF’s impact investments are customizable, so the investor earns interest and is repaid on a schedule of their choosing. Jim Wick, 85, is a retired architect who lives in Shelburne. He has a Social Investment Cash Account, which allows the investor to make additions and withdrawals and has no set maturity date. 

Wick started investing in 2017, after hearing about VCLF from a neighbor. He said he believes in supporting housing, childcare and small businesses. To Wick, it’s very important to invest in things that are locally owned, providing support for services that stays in the community where he lives. 

“I don’t accumulate a lot of interest. That’s not why I decided to do it,” Wick said. “I do it because I hope it does some good in my community.” 

Building Up Vermont’s Affordable Housing

The Old North End Community Center, previously St. Joseph’s School, on Allen Street in Burlington, is the vibrant center of a lower-income area of the city. It brings community members together as a children’s theater, childcare center and event hall — and it wouldn’t have been possible without a $2 million loan from VCLF, the largest loan from VCLF at the time, to the Champlain Housing Trust. 

“That was not a typical project, and a bank could not support all of the financing we needed,” said Michael Monte, chief executive officer of the Champlain Housing Trust, “but we brought it to the Vermont Community Loan Fund, and they were immediately on board. They understood the value of this community center.” 

The Champlain Housing Trust formed from the 2006 merger of two parent groups, the Burlington Community Land Trust and the Lake Champlain Housing Development Corporation. Anyone who has tried to look for housing in Vermont can tell you that the trust provides a service that is desperately needed. 

“We certainly have lots of people that need housing,” Monte said. The Trust has 3,700 apartments and homes, which is “a fairly large number for northwest Vermont,” yet more than 300 people still rely on shelters in Burlington, he said. 

Many of the Trust’s projects have been made possible by VCLF, which has provided the organization with 32 loans since 1984, resulting in a total of $18.8 million in affordable housing for Vermonters. 

“They’ve always been someone we can go to,” Monte said. “They bring flexibility that’s needed for these projects, and the interest rates are competitive. VCLF can go above and beyond what a bank can do, and that has had real value to us for decades.” 

Vermont faces no shortage of challenges now, whether housing, supporting small businesses or providing necessary childcare services. By investing with VCLF, Vermonters have the opportunity to fund these things and ensure that their money stays local. 

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