{"id":269899,"date":"2025-11-19T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/?p=269899"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:52:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:52:45","slug":"woodstock-institute-uses-data-to-advocate-for-community-reinvestment-and-fair-lending-across-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/woodstock-institute-uses-data-to-advocate-for-community-reinvestment-and-fair-lending-across-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodstock Institute Uses Data to Advocate for Community Reinvestment and Fair Lending Across Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nestled in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Woodstock Institute has been working to advance economic justice and racial equity within financial systems at the local, state and national levels for over 50 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization was founded in 1973 by Chicago philanthropists Sylvia and Aaron Scheinfeld as the program arm of the couple\u2019s foundation based in Woodstock, Illinois. It served as a convening center where local leaders could debate policy solutions around racial justice, housing access and economic development. In 1977, the institute became a separate nonprofit and relocated to Chicago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Woodstock<\/span><\/a> now operates as a research and policy advocacy nonprofit that focuses on fair lending, wealth creation and financial reform efforts to help low-income individuals and communities of color build economic security. The organization still serves as a convener, bringing together community members, philanthropic groups, financial institutions and policymakers to implement policy solutions in Illinois.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Empowering communities with actionable data\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Woodstock conducts research into lending disparities, predatory practices and financial policy initiatives. In 2022, it launched the <\/span>Community Data Lending Portal<\/span><\/a> to monitor changes in financial lending throughout Illinois by aggregating data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the Community Reinvestment Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to help democratize the data so that organizations, aldermen and community leaders can use this data to identify gaps in lending, opportunities for reinvestment and possible partnerships with banks,\u201d said Serrater Chapman, director of applied research at the Woodstock Institute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Woodstock has also started partnering with other states and cities, such as Indiana and the City of Milwaukee, to build out mortgage and small business lending <\/span>data portals <\/span><\/a>that community groups and policymakers can use to pinpoint lending gaps and develop policy solutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Advocating for community reinvestment and consumer protections<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Woodstock Institute was a key coalition leader in passing both the 1977 <\/span>Community Reinvestment Act<\/span><\/a> (CRA) and the 2021 <\/span>Illinois Community Reinvestment Act<\/span><\/a>. While the federal CRA aims to combat bank redlining, or the practice of denying credit to low-income communities of color, the Illinois CRA provides additional oversight of state-chartered banks, credit unions and mortgage companies. Woodstock now co-leads the <\/span>Illinois CRA Coalition<\/span><\/a>, which manages the implementation of the law across the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Community Reinvestment Coalition was an enormous resource in getting that bill drafted and passed and helping us on the advocacy front,\u201d said Jane Doyle, senior regulatory policy associate at the Woodstock Institute.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Woodstock also worked with the Illinois Black Legislative Caucus and a coalition of 150 nonprofits to pass the <\/span>Illinois Predatory Loan Prevention Act<\/span><\/a> (IPLPA) in 2021, which placed a 36% annual percentage rate (APR) cap on consumer loans, saving residents $600 million in loan fees during its first year alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Woodstock Institute is planning to focus on diverting predatory lenders from operating in the state and working with financial institutions to solve the need for emergency cash assistance for low-income communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Since the PLPA passed, we’ve [been] advocating for more safe and responsible financial institutions to come into the small dollar loan space and start filling that gap,\u201d Doyle said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Ridel is a Contributing Writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of the Woodstock Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nestled in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Woodstock Institute has been working to advance economic justice and racial equity within financial systems at the local, state and national levels for over 50 years.\u00a0 The organization was founded in 1973 by Chicago philanthropists Sylvia and Aaron Scheinfeld as the program arm of the couple\u2019s foundation 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Ridel","author_link":"https:\/\/www.kaitlynridel.com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Nestled in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Woodstock Institute has been working to advance economic justice and racial equity within financial systems at the local, state and national levels for over 50 years.\u00a0 The organization was founded in 1973 by Chicago philanthropists Sylvia and Aaron Scheinfeld as the program arm of the couple\u2019s foundation…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}