North Carolina Rural Center

The mission of the NC Rural Center is to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies to improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians with a special focus on people with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources. As part of this mission, we operate three indirect lending programs under the State Small Business Credit Initiative - the Loan Participation Program, the Capital Access Program, and the NC Venture Capital Program. These three programs work with community banks, community development financial institutions, and investment firms within North Carolina. Our subsidiary CornerSquare Community Capital works with CDFIs and MDIs in 16 states to support small business, while our nonprofit CDFI Thread Capital offers direct microloans to small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout State of North Carolina.