Chatham Business Association, Small Business Development

Chatham Business Association, SBDI
Sustaining Communities by Building One Business at a Time

Business Lending

The Chatham Business Association (CBA) Small Business Capital Development Program is a technical assistance based platform wherein CBA staff works directly with start up and existing small businesses, entrepreneurs and not for profits to source both conventional and alternative forms of capital.

CBA maintains strong working relationships with traditional financial institutions such as BMO Harris and PNC Bank to provide lending, investment and other bank services for our more established, “bankable” members.

However, a substantial segment of our membership is considered “unbankable” by traditional financial institutions for myriad reason including personal credit history or length of time in business. In some cases, the financing needs of our members are simply not substantial enough for many traditional banks to consider funding.  In addition, while some of our members are truly viable business enterprises, they may lack the financial acumen to navigate financing networks and explore capital development strategies.

For this segment of our membership, CBA partners to assess the financial health of a business and develops a strategic plan that matches the businesses needs with the available financial solutions.  CBA works closely with micro lenders whose guidelines are more conducive to the financial or credit limitations of some of our membership base.  Beyond this however, CBA provides pre and post closing assistance in the form of financial document collection and analysis, preliminary underwriting, contract procurement and service referrals.  Since 2013, CBA has counseled 284 different businesses yielding over $300,000 in microloans to over 35 businesses.

Our goal is to develop our clients’ capacity to work with traditional financial institutions by creating stronger businesses and educating our members.

© Chatham Business Association | 800 E. 78th St Chicago, Illinois 60619 773-994-5006 (Office) 773-855-8905 (Fax)

Chatham Business Association, Small Business Development, Inc is a 501c6 non-profit organization.
All donations/sales are non-refundable.