Jewish Community Financial Support

Interest-free Loans for the Northern California Community.

Hebrew Free Loan allows donors to provide capital for interest-free loans to people in need throughout the Northern California Jewish community. When donors lend money to Hebrew Free Loan from their donor-advised funds (DAFs), they make it possible for the agency to continue helping individuals, families, and small business owners overcome financial challenges and build lives of dignity and meaning.

Hebrew Free Loan’s model is based on the ongoing recycling of loan funds. The organization makes interest-free loans to those in need, loan recipients pay the money back, and Hebrew Free Loan lends it out again to support the next person. With a loan repayment rate of over 99.5%, this model has kept Hebrew Free Loan sustainable for over 127 years.

However, successive waves of extraordinary need have disrupted Hebrew Free Loan’s sustainability. During the Covid-19 pandemic, loan requests far outpaced funds available to lend, and Hebrew Free Loan faced the distinct possibility of turning people away. It happened again in each of the past two years, when requests for assistance poured in from people struggling with inflation, high interest rates, an unstable job market, and pandemic-depleted savings.

Hebrew Free Loan disbursed $8M in loans in 2022-23 and $8.7M in 2023-24. This is over 50% more than was typically loaned out before the pandemic. Thanks to impact loans from the Federation’s donor-advised fundholders, Hebrew Free Loan has not yet had to turn anyone away for lack of resources.  

These high levels of need appear to be the “new normal,” with projections for the current fiscal year similar to the past two years. Impact loans from DAFs help bridge the gap between the funds available to lend and what Hebrew Free Loan needs to meet the increased demand. These impact loans will provide capital to ensure that Hebrew Free Loan can continue to serve all qualified applicants who come to them for assistance.