Southern Reparations Loan Fund is a network of loan funds that lend to democratically-governed enterprises that meet the needs and elevate the quality of life of African American, immigrant, and poor white communities in the US South. SRLF network members focus their lending to start-ups and expansions of democratically-governed enterprises that meet the needs and elevate the quality of life of African Americans, immigrants, poor whites, and others who have been systematically damaged by exploitation and oppression. Our aim is to nurture the development of businesses that maximize community benefit, rather than the narrow concept of maximizing profit. The SRLF network began life in 2015 as a single, centralized loan fund. The goal of SRLF is to serve the entire South – a region of almost a million square miles. Since SRLF came into existence, we’ve re-learned a key lesson about effective lending – it has to be rooted in place at a level of “local-ness” that we can’t achieve across a 14-state region through a centralized model. Being local allows for the kind of contextual understanding, relationship-building and close-at hand technical assistance that new and growing enterprises need. website: https://southernreparations.org/ facebook: @SouthernReparations