About
The Center for Community Self-Help, known simply as Self-Help, is a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit founded in 1980 on the belief that ownership is the best way for families to build wealth and financial security and for society to create strong, vibrant communities. It anchors a national family of mission-driven organizations — including Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund, and the Center for Responsible Lending — whose collective mission is creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for all.
Mission
Self-Help's mission is creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for all, especially people of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families and communities. It pursues this by providing responsible financial services, lending to small businesses and nonprofits, developing real estate, and promoting fair financial practices, with a focus on those underserved by conventional lenders.
What they do
- Community development banking: through Self-Help Credit Union (founded 1983) and Self-Help Federal Credit Union (chartered 2008), the family operates a network of over 80 branches and offices serving more than 235,000 members in ten states.
- Small business and nonprofit lending: to date Self-Help has made over $955 million in loans to small businesses and nonprofits, adapting international microlending models to the U.S. market.
- Homeownership: home lending began in 1985 for North Carolina families unable to get conventional mortgages; a national secondary market mortgage program launched in 1998 has supported homeownership for over 70,000 households.
- Real estate development: Self-Help has developed and invested $1.76 billion in commercial real estate projects to invigorate downtowns and neighborhoods, and created affordable housing for 400 families.
- Policy and consumer protection: Self-Help helped pass North Carolina's 1999 Predatory Lending Law, the first in the country, and in 2002 established the Center for Responsible Lending, a national research and policy nonprofit fighting abusive financial practices.
History
Self-Help started in 1980 helping employees in rural North Carolina form worker-owned cooperatives. Co-founders Martin Eakes and Bonnie Wright launched Self-Help Credit Union and a nonprofit loan fund after seeing workers repeatedly denied conventional financing; the first capital was $77 raised through a bake sale. From an unheated office in downtown Durham in 1982, the organization grew through decades of expansion and mergers with community-focused credit unions in North Carolina, California, Chicago, Florida, South Carolina, Washington, and elsewhere — including Seaway Bank and Trust, one of the largest Black-owned banks in America, in 2017.
Scale and impact
For over 40 years, the Center for Community Self-Help and its affiliates have provided more than $12 billion in financing to help more than 174,000 borrowers buy homes, start and grow businesses, and strengthen community resources. Self-Help Credit Union alone holds over $2.09 billion in assets and serves more than 105,000 members across 36 branches, while Self-Help Federal Credit Union has 44 branches, over $2.28 billion in assets, and serves over 130,000 people.
Financials
According to its Form 990 on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, the Center for Community Self-Help (the 501(c)(3) coordinating entity; the credit unions and affiliates report separately) had total revenue of $7,553,705 and total expenses of $5,817,069 for the fiscal year ending December 2024, with net assets of $45,873,947.