WeConservePA has updated its guide Bridge Loans for Conservation Purchases: Borrowing from Revolving Loan Funds. This guide explains how land trusts can acquire short-term low-interest loans to complete conservation projects in a timely fashion. Organizations who offer such loan programs to Pennsylvania land trusts and nonprofits are profiled and detailed case studies involving those programs and Pennsylvania land trusts are also provided.
Timing can make or break a conservation deal. If a seller has to sell by a certain date or is simply intent on selling quickly, an organization must come up with the necessary financing on the seller’s timeline or let the conservation opportunity pass. If the organization does not have sufficient cash at hand and the opportunity is too important to lose, the organization will have to turn to borrowing.
The seller is a logical first place to go for financing. WeConservePA has published two guides, Seller Take Back Financing and Installment Agreement, that address this avenue. Where the seller is not agreeable to financing the transaction, a bridge loan, made through a revolving loan fund set up specifically to assist conservation projects, is the next logical avenue. These revolving funds provide short-term loans at low or no interest for transactions that meet the criteria set by each fund.
