CFNEG Impact Investing: Changing Lives One Loan at a Time 

Over 50 countries are represented in Clarkston, Georgia, a small city with approximately 14,000 residents. Many of these residents are refugees from their home countries.

Thrive Community Lending and its Executive Director John Arnold work within this diverse community — one that has seen great loss but one filled with people regularly breaking down barriers to build new lives. 

“The refugees didn’t really choose to come to the United States. They often don’t have another choice,” John explained.

When refugees move to the United States, they face two big challenges as they establish new lives in a new country.

“One is just language. You cannot really function in another place unless you know the language,” John explained. “Learning another language when you’re an adult is not as easy as when you’re a child. Having the command of English and understanding American culture is a challenge.”

The second challenge is understanding the U.S.’s financial system. “Having good credit is important in the United States, and that’s not a real common thing in many of the countries where our clients come from. But here, to be able to get mobile phone service, to rent an apartment you have to have good credit,” John said.

Many refugees were successful business owners in their home countries. Now they not only need to learn a new language but also adapt to new business and financial traditions.

“Running a business in the U.S. might be very different than what they were used to, even though they might have a lot of experience running a business in their countries,” John shared. 

These barriers, and many more, that refugees face led Inspiritus — an organization committed to empowering families across Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama — to found Thrive Community Lending to provide support and small business loans to refugees and immigrants.

John had already been working with refugees when he learned about the opportunity to join Thrive.

“When I heard about this, it was interesting to me because most of my work with refugees had been resettling them when they first came into the United States. But Thrive works with refugees after they’ve already been here a little while. They’re more established and need to move forward and improve their economic situations.”

Thrive occupies a unique position in the community as both a nonprofit and a loan management organization. 

“We’re deploying loans and providing business training to folks who are low-income to strengthen their business or help them launch a brand new business,” John explained. “What I love most is the personal contact with borrowers and potential borrowers. I learn about their lives and their dreams for their small business.”

Not only does Thrive provide the funds to help refugees scale their business, but the team also equips their clients with the tools and training they need to succeed after they close on the loan.

“We offer business training for people before they get a loan to prepare them to apply for the loan,” John said. “Then after they close on a loan with us, we work with them one-on-one for the life of their loan, which is usually three years, in our case. We’re committed to working with them to make sure their business is successful.”

As Thrive has grown, they’ve explored how partnerships can maximize their support for refugees. During one meeting with other community leaders in spring of 2024, John and his team heard about the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia.

Once John connected with Community Foundation President and CEO DePriest Waddy and his team, a new partnership emerged. 

This year, Thrive opened a fund with the Community Foundation, and the foundation loaned Thrive $100,000 to help fund small businesses and expand opportunities for loans for refugee business owners through its impact investing initiative. 

Soon after, Thrive helped its 27th small business take the next step towards financial success.

“That represents more than $310,000 that we’ve pumped into local communities,” John explained. “The 27th loan that we made is with some of the funds that came from the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia for a business owner who lives in Buford.”

This business owner is a Ukrainian refugee named Alex who fled Ukraine with his family in search of safety.

“He’s married with three children, and they were in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. They were tolerating the bombing and disruption that you can imagine happens in the middle of the war, but they decided they needed to leave and go someplace safe for their young children,” John shared.

Alex had been a successful businessman in Ukraine and brought his talents in textured and specialty painting to the Atlanta area.

“But he needed equipment for the mixing of these specialty paints instead of having to order it from Europe and pay the expensive tariffs, taxes and shipping costs,” John said. “He had customers waiting but wasn’t able to serve them quickly because of the lack of this equipment.”

With the funds from the Community Foundation, Thrive closed on a loan with Alex to help him purchase the equipment he needed for a flourishing business. 

“Refugees like Alex fled persecution and came to the United States, not just for a better life but to spare the lives of their families. He’s a great person — super motivated and hardworking. He’s the kind of person that I think the U.S. needs,” John shared. 

Thrive is grateful to the Community Foundation for having faith in them and their outreach so they can serve borrowers like Alex. 

“Because we’re a young organization, it means a lot for people to believe in us. We’re taking risks to lend money to folks who are low-income and who might not have wonderful credit scores or payment histories. We’re giving them a chance,” John shared.

“The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia has also given us a chance, and we’re excited about supporting borrowers in the area and seeing what great things happen.”

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