FAQs

As a community development financial institution (CDFI), Bridgeway Capital provides capital and business education to underserved markets that will result in positive economic and social impact. Traditionally, small businesses, community services organizations and other enterprises have difficulty accessing conventional credit markets. Making loans to entrepreneurs helps grow small businesses and drive job creation, positively impacting our economy; making loans to community services organizations helps enhance and sustain their ability to provide critical social services to the communities in which we live and work, positively impacting our quality of life. We believe this is part of a comprehensive solution to revitalize and grow our region.

To ignite economic growth to make western Pennsylvania a thriving region for all. Bridgeway Capital provides capital and educational opportunities to ignite business and job growth, build entrepreneurial capacity, and sustain vital services that strengthen our communities.

By focusing on three strategies:

• Increase Financing
• Educate Entrepreneurs
• Improve Awareness

We measure jobs created/preserved, the expansion of services, the percentage of low-income people served, the availability of family-wages and/or benefits, and other related impact metrics. If the client is a nonprofit, we also measure the number of people served by the organization and the number of community facilities (or total square footage) financed.

A certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) is a specialized financial institution that works in market niches that are underserved by traditional financial institutions. CDFIs provide a unique range of financial products and services in economically distressed target markets, such as technical assistance, commercial loans and investments to small start-up or expanding businesses in low-income areas; mortgage financing for low-income and first-time homebuyers and not-for-profit developers; and flexible underwriting and risk capital for needed community facilities. CDFIs include regulated institutions such as community development banks and credit unions, and non-regulated institutions such as loan and venture capital funds.

Bridgeway Capital is non-regulated, certified CDFI and we focus on making loans to start-up or expanding businesses and providing technical assistance. We are a market-driven, private sector financial intermediary with a social mission. We make a small amount of resources go a long way, and we are a model that works. We work outside the margins of mainstream finance to provide opportunities and access to capital. We strive to be sustainable for maximum impact — we are not profit-maximizing.

No, we make loans, and while some of our loans have equity-like features, we do not expect equity-like returns on investment. Bridgeway Capital provides financing to meet the needs of growing small businesses. We focus our efforts on financing businesses that will increase jobs and drive economic growth.