Capital for the businesses banks send away.
The Harlem Entrepreneurial Fund is the U.S. Treasury–certified CDFI lending affiliate of Harlem Commonwealth Council. We finance small businesses across Upper Manhattan and the Bronx that conventional underwriting screens out — and we read the business, not the credit score.
Capital is the constraint. We remove it.
A thin credit file is not a business plan. We read the business.
HEF serves low-income and minority populations in Harlem and the Bronx by providing the two things that actually move a small business forward: capital, and someone to help you use it. Loans fund expansion. Technical assistance makes the expansion survive. Together they create jobs in the neighbourhoods that need them.
The businesses we lend to are rarely short on customers or competence. They are short on a lender willing to look past an algorithm — a two-year-old operation with uneven statements, a contractor waiting on a receivable, an owner whose credit took the hit that kept the doors open. Those are the files we underwrite.
What a CDFI does that a bank won't.
Character and cash flow, not a score
A credit score is one input, not the decision. We look at what the business actually does — revenue patterns, time in operation, the owner's track record, references from people who have worked with them, and whether the plan holds up. Files a bank declines on a single number are the files we read properly.
Loan sizes that fit real needs
From $2,500 to $350,000 — small enough for a first piece of equipment, large enough for a build-out or a contract you need to staff up for. Working capital, equipment, leasehold improvements, and refinancing the high-cost debt that too many owners get pushed into.
The loan comes with a bench
Applicants who aren't ready yet don't get a rejection letter and nothing else. Through Harlem Commonwealth Council you get help with statements, pricing, and procurement readiness — before you borrow and after you close.
Fixed-rate term loans and lines of credit for businesses in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Talk to us before you assume you don't qualify.
Loan productsLending, measured.
NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund — a $75 million loan fund created with the City of New York and NYC Small Business Services.
Lending figures are HEF's own, reported by Harlem Commonwealth Council across its full community footprint.
See the full impact dashboardCertified, and accountable for it.
- 2007
Founded by Harlem Commonwealth Council to break down the barriers facing minority entrepreneurs in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
- 2008
Lending began in the summer, with the first loans closed to Harlem business owners.
- 2012
Certified as a CDFI by the U.S. Department of the Treasury — the designation that lets HEF lend on terms a conventional institution cannot.
- 2020
Certified as a Community Development Entity, expanding the tools available for financing larger projects in low-income communities.
Find out where you stand.
Bring us the business as it actually is. A conversation costs nothing and tells you quickly whether we're the right lender for you.