Join BII and Lawyers for Civil Rights for the unveiling of a key output of our Just Lending Initiative: model loan documents that are simplified, transparent and entrepreneur-friendly, to facilitate capital access for entrepreneurs in line with our values of financial inclusion.

We partnered to launch this initiative in January 2022, starting with a full-day MLK Virtual Day of Service virtual hackathon. Nearly 50 attorneys with debt and other financing experience, non-profit and small business lenders, and technical assistance providers worked together to find ways to transform complex paperwork into more straightforward formats.

Ropes and Gray and Riemer and Braunstein worked on the draft started at the hackathon and created a simplified lending agreement that reflects trust-based, relationship-centered lending terms that are easier to understand and empowering for borrowers.

At this webinar, we will unveil the new model lending agreement, which BII and several community development finance institutions are now using to advance trust-based lending. We will share the journey of transforming three documents totaling more than 55 pages into a single, streamlined Loan and Security Agreement. We will also show how lawyers embraced the call to action in the Just Lending Framework: to move from a lender-centered agreement to one that better reflects the relationship between lender and borrowers in a community loan fund.