Announcing CCL's New Executive Director!

Dear CCL Community,

Community Credit Lab is going through an exciting phase of growth. Last month, we celebrated our 100th investment and disbursed our 1st small business loan. All loans were deployed with 0%-2% interest, reversing traditional approaches to credit pricing for people who face discrimination in the financial system.

CCL envisions a society that enables everyone to thrive by creating and supporting decentralized financial solutions that pivot capital and power to communities. We are deeply grateful to our Lending Partners, whose insights, guidance, and participation enable us to shift power and collectively design an inclusive and just financial system, an integral component of CCL’s approach. Thank you also to our Team, our Advisors, our Funders, our Donors, our Investors, and our thought partners for your support, for sharing this vision with us, and for your dedication to changing the financial system. We are all vital to this movement.

The conversation is shifting, and the pressing need for economic justice is loudening. As we reflect on our collective achievements to date, we also acknowledge that our learnings, adaptations, and services must persist for the society we envision. With a growing team of finance, development, and partnerships professionals, CCL is poised to rebuild financial and lending practices that are contextual, equitable, and regenerative at the direction of our Lending Partners. The intentionality with which we continue to confront and challenge barriers and realize a more equitable society drives us to continue looking beyond CCL’s work and take direction from our Lending Partners.

With the goal to balance CCL’s intentionality with a bias towards action, the Board of Directors is thrilled to announce the appointment of Sandhya Nakhasi as Executive Director! Sandhya has served as Chief Investment Officer since CCL’s inception. Prior to CCL, she was the Investment Manager at a private foundation where she led the design and implementation of both direct- and indirect- impact investing strategies. Sandhya’s experience comprises public, private, and non-profit financial institutions, developing expertise in credit analysis, portfolio risk management, and portfolio operations: Freddie Mac, Capital One, and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. After earning her MBA, Sandhya built out underwriting and portfolio-management systems and processes that enabled data-driven decisions at Lighter Capital, a financial technology start-up focused on revenue-based small business lending. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from New York University and her Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Our Lending Programs reach communities experiencing compounding systemic barriers to economic advancement and the ability to build wealth. By facilitating regenerative lending programs at the direction of our Lending Partners who know their communities best, CCL champions personal, community, and generational prosperity. As an agent of systems change, we act, learn, adapt, and imagine. Emergence is inherent to CCL’s approach and Sandhya’s ability to adapt and draw from professional experiences across the nonprofit and financial sectors will continue to enable CCL to support our Lending Partners and borrowers effectively. To quote adrienne maree brown, “The people of an organization make or break the work, and the best mission will not be realized without the right people behind it.” With Sandhya’s guidance and leadership, we are confident CCL and our team will boldly face the challenges and opportunities of today’s financial system, enabling our borrowers to realize their aspirations, ideas, and goals for themselves, their businesses, and their families. Congratulations, Sandhya!

Please join us in welcoming Sandhya as Executive Director by showing your support for CCL’s new leadership and consider learning more about CCL’s investment and funding opportunities or making a donation! Your participation enables CCL to launch an exciting, new chapter for Community Credit Lab.

In Community,

CCL Board