The Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF) is a 12 year old, statewide, private nonprofit lender, consultant and advocate that serves the real estate finance and development needs of Illinois’ nonprofits. To meet its mission, IFF offers below market real estate loans; a full range of real estate consulting services, including predevelopment planning and construction project management; technical assistance on fiscal management and innovations such as social entrepreneurship; and advocacy and public education for nonprofits serving low-income communities or special needs people throughout Illinois. The IFF has invested over $73 million in nonprofit real estate projects, completed over 60 nonprofit real estate construction or renovation projects, which have served over 230 nonprofit organizations and affected 3.3 million square feet of building space in communities throughout Illinois.

IFF’s creative, flexible approach to investing in the child care industry has resulted in increased or improved classrooms and centers capacity to serve 6,000 children through 48 loans and several dozen real estate consulting projects to over 50 nonprofit early childhood care and education providers. The IFF has loaned $9.2 million, invested $18 million directly and packaged almost $44 million in public and private funding to build the childcare field in Illinois. IFF has also applied its expertise in the financial and operating environment of the childcare field to produce a variety of research tools and reports. Examples include: needs assessments for child care in over 250 Illinois communities, and a statewide child care needs assessment; and opinion research on the child care preferences of Latina mothers in the Chicago metropolitan area.