Tennessee Rural Opportunity Fund

Last legislative session an act was passed by the General Assembly to create the Tennessee Rural Opportunity Fund. This fund is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between Governor Bredesen's Administration, the Tennessee Bankers Association and its Member Banks, and Southeast Community Capital Corporation to create a $10,000,000 perpetual revolving loan fund for small, disadvantaged, and start-up businesses in rural communities throughout Tennessee. Once established, this fund will provide below market rate loans to targeted businesses in rural Tennessee in need of capital to facilitate business growth and job creation. The Fund will target businesses unable to access traditional credit due to lack of collateral, poor credit scores, inconsistent earnings, and being identified as a start-up business. The program is in development, but if you know of a someone in your county that could benefit from this opportunity, you may wish to pass this information on to them. Economic development in the current economic environment is very challenging, particularly in rural areas. For more information visit http://www.sccapital.org/funds/tn-rural-opportunity-fund.html