The oldest form of banking

Community Finance expands access to zero-interest, character-based credit by strengthening the capital and infrastructure available to community lenders. Our work builds on a time-honored practice of lending, borrowing, and pooling resources among friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. 

Often labeled “informal,” these social credit networks are in fact sophisticated, durable, and deeply rooted in trust. They are built within communities, led by people closest to borrowers, and designed to meet needs that mainstream finance often overlooks. Community Finance helps these models reach more people and operate at greater scale without losing their relationship-based character.

Community Practice to Financial Infrastructure

Community-rooted lending has long helped people access capital, manage risk, and support one another. Across the globe, groups such as susus, tandas, and Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) have enabled economic mutual aid for generations. For many communities, these associations offer trusted pathways to financial security, asset building, and ownership.

Despite their effectiveness, mainstream credit systems rarely recognize the relational knowledge and repayment practices that make these models work. Community Finance builds on this foundation by helping lenders expand zero-interest, character-based credit through additional capital, risk-sharing tools, and operational support. Our goal is to strengthen the infrastructure around community-rooted lending so that more people can access fair credit without losing the trust and accountability at its core.

What we do

Affordable credit should be available to all. Community Finance expands trust-based, socially underwritten lending through:

Loan Capital

We provide flexible loan capital to community lenders so they can serve more borrowers and make larger loans.

Portfolio Guarantees

We share a portion of lenders’ credit risk, helping them expand zero-interest lending while generating evidence about the performance of socially underwritten loans.

Field Building

We partner with community lenders, financial institutions, employers, philanthropy, and researchers to test new models, strengthen the evidence base, and create pathways for trust-based credit to reach greater scale.