South Carolina Community Loan Fund has been selected to join Opportunity Finance Network's Financial Product Lab, a national program supporting seven community development financial institutions as they design, test, and launch new financial products for small business owners. The Lab is part of OFN's Innovation Initiative and is funded with support from a Truist Foundation grant, which will help the cohort deploy up to $1.05 million to small businesses by the end of 2027.
SCCLF joins Albany Community Together (Albany, GA), Economic Community and Development Institute (Columbus, OH), FSC First (Upper Marlboro, MD), Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation (London, KY), Pathway Lending (Nashville, TN), and Pursuit Lending (East Latham, NY) in the cohort. Each participating organization receives a $150,000 grant to deploy its product and put additional capital to work with small businesses.
Program and Partnership Manager Greg Perry represented SCCLF at the Lab's kickoff, a two day innovation workshop held August 26 and 27 in Washington, DC, where participants worked alongside peer CDFIs and innovation experts to stress test their product concepts, identify risks, and build action plans for the year ahead.
Across the cohort, participants are tackling longstanding barriers that keep small business owners, especially first time and thinly capitalized entrepreneurs, from accessing conventional credit. According to the Federal Reserve's 2026 Report on Employer Firms, nearly half of small businesses denied conventional funding said lender requirements were too strict, and 30 percent were turned down over credit scores. Approaches in the Lab include more flexible underwriting, AI supported loan origination, repayment structures built around how small businesses actually generate revenue, and technical assistance paired directly with lending products.
"This is exactly the kind of collaboration that moves the needle for small business owners. We're looking forward to bringing new ideas home to entrepreneurs across South Carolina."
— Greg Perry, Program and Partnership Manager, SCCLF
For SCCLF, the selection extends a mission the organization already carries out statewide across South Carolina, helping small business owners who are too often passed over by traditional lenders get the capital they need to start, grow, and succeed.