Milestones | Opportunity Fund

About Us

1992-1994: Planning

Eric Weaver hired as Project Coordinator to explore feasibility of creating a bank lending consortium in Santa Clara County. The project is convened and housed by Silicon Valley Bank and the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County (now Silicon Valley Community Foundation)
Articles of Incorporation filed, creating Lenders for Community Development, a for-profit multi-bank community development corporation—15 local banks purchase shares
17 banks sign an agreement to provide funds for two loan pools: one focused on affordable housing and one on small business loans

1995-1997: Launch

First small business loan is granted to Treasure Chest Aquarium for $17,000
First affordable housing loan, to South County Housing, to acquire land for an affordable rental development in Gilroy
In 1997, LCD hosts a “Million Dollar Party” to celebrate $1 million in cumulative microloans to small businesses

1998-2001: Partnership

LCD and Center for Venture Philanthropy launch the IDA Microsavings Program (called the Assets for All Alliance)
LCD helps the Sobrato Foundation launch the $10 million Sobrato Affordable Housing Fund. LCD also begins managing loan programs for the Housing Trust of Santa Clara County
LCD completes conversion from a for-profit to a non-profit

2002-2004: Innovation

LCD enrolls the 1,000th participant in IDA Microsavings. The program is now the largest and most successful of its kind in the country.
LCD receives its first $25 million New Markets Tax Credit Allocation for community real estate projects and closes the first two New Market Tax Credit loans in the Bay Area: Preservation Park in Oakland and National Hispanic University in San Jose.
LCD receives the Skoll Award for Innovation in Silicon Valley

2005-2007: Scale and Impact

LCD celebrates $100 million invested in the community with over 2,000 savers, 5,000 homes financed and loans to over 600 Bay Area entrepreneurs
LCD awarded Wachovia Impact award
LCD releases Families Saving and Building Hope, a two-year longitudinal study of our IDA Microsavings Program
LCD Founder and CEO Eric Weaver is one of the first six recipients of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, created to recognize people advancing innovative and effective solutions to some of the challenging issues facing California

2008-2010: Field-building Leadership

Opportunity Fund celebrates $10 million in cumulative savings and earned match by savers
Opportunity Fund celebrates $10 million in cumulative lending to Bay Area small businesses

Opportunity Fund hosts the first-ever nationwide conference, Microfinance USA
Opportunity Fund releases its Ripple Effect report, documenting the macro-economic impact of the first fifteen years of its microlending investments on the regional economy.