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Education

Funding more places for children to thrive

Low-income communities, and particularly low-income communities of color, often have unequal access to quality childcare, K-12 and higher education. This inequity compounds poverty and limits opportunity. BlueHub Loan Fund financing works to change that.

Our education financing work

Public charter schools

For many public charter schools, there is no public source of funding for school facilities, and new and expanding schools are often unable to access conventional debt financing. BlueHub Loan Fund targets lending to public charter school leaders with demonstrated ability to holistically nurture and educate children and who go the extra mile to ensure that all children, and especially low-income children and children of color, receive the supports, services and challenges they need to learn and thrive.

The Loan Fund's experienced staff works collaboratively with charter school leaders to fill the financing gaps in their school facility projects. In fact, we specialize in hard-to-finance facilities, like start-up and early-stage public charter schools, i.e. schools that have not yet enrolled students or that have been operating for three years or fewer.

By deploying U.S. Department of Education Charter School Facilities Credit Enhancement awards, we are able to make loans that other lenders typically find too risky to support.

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A student at Bridge Boston Charter School, a public charter school serving students in grades K-8 in Roxbury, MA.
Photo by Marilyn Humphries

Early education and childcare facilities, youth programs

Family income is dramatically and unfairly correlated with children's likelihood of success in school. BlueHub financing for educational facilities addresses this inequity by supporting schools, childcare centers, and youth enrichment programs that serve low-income communities and that provide high quality programming, supports and education.

What we offer

We are creative, accessible, relationship lenders.

At BlueHub Loan Fund, we customize our financing to match the needs of each borrower and project. We support schools throughout their growth cycles with acquisition and construction financing, permanent loans for schools that are fully enrolled, and every financing need in between. We also provide technical assistance when and where it is needed to help schools finance quality facilities.

We have a track record of providing flexible, low-cost capital to public charter schools, early education and childcare facilities, and youth programs serving low-income communities and communities of color.

We offer a full range of flexible loan products for education-related projects, including:

BlueHub Loan Fund helps with financing for real estate acquisition in connection with the development of public charter schools, early education and childcare facilities, and youth programs.

We often combine an acquisition loan with a predevelopment loan to allow borrowers to advance the design of their project while they secure the complete project funding.

We will consider loan amounts that approach or even exceed 100% of the value of the collateral.

When the cash coming in from committed project sources does not align with the construction schedule or funder requirements, BlueHub Loan Fund can help with a bridge loan.

BlueHub Loan Fund provides short-term financing for construction, advancing funds into the project monthly after work has been completed and reviewed. Once construction is complete, we convert the loan to a permanent loan, offering long interest-only periods to accommodate increasing enrollment, as well as amortization periods up to 30 years.

BlueHub Loan Fund works with partners to design financing that helps move education projects forward.

BlueHub Loan Fund finances improvements to leased spaces.

BlueHub Loan Fund is an experienced lender to facility projects utilizing New Markets Tax Credits equity, effectively leveraging our expertise with this complex program as a multi-year recipient of New Markets Tax Credits.

BlueHub Loan Fund can provide longer-term financing for fully enrolled facilities that is supported by the net cash flow of the program.

BlueHub Loan Fund can provide debt behind senior bank financing when a project has sufficient cash flow and value to support additional debt.

[BlueHub Loan Fund was] so creative, so strategic. They were able to assemble a complete package that made the building financially feasible for us.

Yully Cha Former Executive Director of Bridge Boston Charter School

Who we partner with

BlueHub Loan Fund provides financing to large and small public charter schools, as well as nonprofit and for-profit organizations that offer early education and childcare across the country, including:

 

Our impact in education financing

$299.3M

Invested in childcare, schools and youth programs

$32M

Received in US Department of Education Charter School Facilities Credit Enhancement awards

$1.7M

Average loan size for education projects

Contact Us

For inquiries about BlueHub Loan Fund's community development financing work, please email LoanFundInquiry@bluehubcapital.org.

Meet our experts

Elisabeth Davis

Vice President of Commercial Lending Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Elisabeth develops loan products to meet evolving needs of community development projects in underserved areas across the country.

Karen Kelleher

President Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Karen is responsible for the impact, financial performance, portfolio quality and strategic direction of BlueHub Loan Fund.

Ena Kumar

Vice President of Commercial Lending Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Ena manages all aspects of providing commercial lending services to a diverse portfolio of BlueHub Loan Fund borrowers nationwide.

Fortunatus Mbeteni

Vice President of Lending Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Fortunatus manages all aspects of providing debt capital to a diverse portfolio of borrowers nationwide.

Michael Nilles

Senior Vice President, Team Leader Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Mike markets BlueHub Loan Fund to potential borrowers, underwrites loan requests and conducts ongoing portfolio management.

Johvanna Sampson

Vice President of Commercial Lending Community Development Financing | BlueHub Loan Fund

Johvanna conducts outreach and marketing to potential BlueHub Loan Fund borrowers, structuring and underwriting community development loans.

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