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A Subsidiary of NC Rural Center

Thread Communities

Communities like yours are often searching for ways to incentivize small businesses. However, offering and managing a revolving loan fund to spur entrepreneurship can be overwhelming. It requires marketing, reviewing, underwriting, and funding and servicing loans—and many communities do not have the resources to take this on. 

The Thread Communities program eliminates those barriers, allowing you to offer a locally branded loan fund for your community’s small businesses without having to raise the funds or manage the administrative hassles.

As a Thread Community, you will have access to a locally branded revolving loan fund for your local small businesses. Thread Capital will commit to raising additional funds as loan volume dictates. Loans are offered from $500 to $50,000, for terms of up to six years. Thread Capital will handle the administrative details and provide you with guidelines, materials, an online application, handbook, and an assigned Thread Capital staff point-of-contact dedicated to your town’s small-business success. You’ll also have access to the Thread team’s expertise in disaster recovery, should you ever need it.  

There is a $5,000 fee for an up-front assessment, but the fee is waived for STEP/SBRF communities that have participated in past assessments. The assessment helps us understand your community’s unique assets and opportunities, and make informed recommendations on what viable steps you can take to build and expand your small-business ecosystem. After the initial assessment, there is a $5,000 annual fee that covers a portion of Thread Capital’s administrative and operational costs. 

This investment is a fraction of the cost incurred if your community operated its own local revolving loan fund. 

Most importantly, you will have the partnership of the Thread Capital team, who is dedicated to working alongside you to build a vibrant and sustainable local economy.

For more information about Thread Capital’s Thread Communities, reach out to Shannon O’Shea, senior program manager, directly by email: shannon@threadcap.org.