Rende Progress Capital
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
Points to look into
- Only 45% of its spending went to programs.
These come from the organization's own tax return. There may be a good explanation; ask the charity.
What it says it does
RPC is committed to economic equity by providing socially responsible and affordable lending and responsible and affordable lending and services to entrepreneurs who have been excluded from traditional lending due to socio-economic reasons & bias.
- Income
- $554,143
- Spending
- $488,450
- Spent on programs
- 45%
- Reserves
- 78.2 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- government grants, 92%
- Employees
- 4
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 75 out of 100. Higher than 36% of charities in its peer group (philanthropy, $250k to $1m).
Reserves
35 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 78.2 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 5% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 12% of income.
Income trend
5 of 15Income fell 13% on the year before.
Spending floor
0 of 1545% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 12 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 92% of charities in its peer group (philanthropy, $250k to $1m).
Independent board
25 of 259 of 9 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $220,567 spent. For FY 2025, Rende Progress Capital RPC continued uninterrupted delivery of our two core services of 1 small business micro lending and 2 free business Technical Assistance TA to diverse entrepreneurs in our primary market of Kent County, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, and Holland. A FY 2025 Q2 loan deal to a Southeast Michigan adult home care business marked the extension of RPC lending in a fifth county, Wayne County. The aforementioned FY 2025 core services, standard operations portfolio management and loan servicing with customers, launch of our pilot Early Stage Loan and new focus on lending to more high-growth businesses contributed to five additional loan deals including continuing our trend of individual six-figure loans to a high-growth communications and event planning business and an early-stage high-quality day care business. As a non-profit CDFI small business lender with a mission of social impact, FY 2025 also was a continuation of our distinctive from traditional finance institutions as we used credit enhancements to reduce borrower payment obligations, mitigate first-time new borrower closing fees and develop incentives to assist approved borrowers with collateral constraints. FY 2025 TA marked our growth in the second essential RPC service of business technical assistance TA with the hiring of a new strategic focused position of Manager for Business Engagement and Cultivation. This position coordinated free business fundamental consultation to 1 RPC loan customers to grow their business and reduce the probability of having problem loans with us and 2 TA to select non-customers focused on their participation in our pre-loan readiness incubator to prepare them in readiness in the process of loan applications and potentially becoming RPC loan customers. The main TA program for FY 2025 was the inaugural Q3 Pre-Loan Readiness Cohort of six specially selected non-RPC customer businesses to learn about readiness for business lending---which contributed to cash awards for all participants and one participant applying for a RPC loan, which was approved.
- FY 2025 business technical assistance TA produced outputs of serving 41 businesses via 76 engagements in four TA Service Areas of 1 individual technical assistance, 2 loan navigation, 3 post-loan counseling, and 4 cohort-based loan readiness programming. In addition, these outputs included providing free TA to 32 entrepreneurs (84.2%) through one-on-one technical assistance and loan navigation; 6 entrepreneurs (15.8%) through a structured Pre-Loan Readiness Cohort; 26 women-owned businesses (68.4%); 28 entrepreneurs of color (73.7%) served, and 10 non-Hispanic white entrepreneurs (26.3%) served. 59% of entrepreneurs served by TA were businesses from Grand Rapids/Kent County 18% Detroit; 8.1% from Muskegon; 10% Kalamazoo and other Lansing The impacts of our FY 2025 TA were of 1 Pipeline Conversion of 12 non-customer businesses successfully establishing loan application accounts; 2 Application Completion--- 7 businesses completed the full application process under RPC guidance; 3Capital Facilitated as three businesses non-customer recipients of TA moved from inquiry to full funding, resulting in $180,000 in capital deployed. TA to non-customers had a correlation between RPCs strategic TA and portfolio health, evidenced by our FY 2025 year-end loan performance of 0% Debt Charge Offs; 0% Debt Write Offs; Remaining at 6% for 60 Day Delinquencies and 3.3% 30 Day Delinquencies.
- An essential activity with notable program, funding, technology/systems, time and labor obligations is loan portfolio management. These are functions of daily, weekly, and monthly high-touch activities with loan customers in managing problem loans and delinquencies. As a result of our loan portfolio management and our rigorous weekly loan portfolio monitoring, staff engagement with customers of financial wellness check-in and loan servicing to minimize problem loans or moving to collections, RPC End-of-Year portfolio performance as of December 31, 2025 was: 0% New Charge-Offs/Loan Defaults; 0% New Write-Offs; Ending at 0% 30-Day Delinquencies (well under our 10% desired threshold) and; 2.9% for 60-Day Delinquencies (under our 6% desired threshold).
- FY 2024 TA to RPC loan customers focused on strengthening their business fundamentals in order to grow their business and reduce the probability of having problem loans with us. TA to select non-customers focused on their participation in our pre-loan readiness incubator to prepare them in readiness in the process of loan applications and potentially becoming RPC loan customers. Specifically, within lending services, RPC provided the following: Lending: The first output was our lending to eight new loan deals in FY 2024---including achieving an unexpected but appreciative milestone of those new loan deals including Line 4a continued.. They were a West Michigan Asian-American owned restaurant and a West Michigan African-American owned dance studio. Such lending in FY 2024 led to: 32 active loans of a historical near fifty loan customers which as mentioned, led to our first milestone of $1 million plus in overall small business lending. For many current and new loan customers, such RPC loan customers reported impacts ranging from a Kalamazoo business receiving a six-figure loan which contributed to them being one of four loan customers reporting expansion in revenue between 10% to 20% or more to two RPC loan clients reporting in expansion in total paid hours to employees. Line 4b. Race/Ethnicity: 61.11% African-American; 5.5% Hispanic/Latinx; 5.5% Native American; 2% White and remainder as N/A or Other. Customers receiving FY 2024 TA included a business in the beauty and professional services industry who received required TA in Operating Software and Bookkeeping due to a loan modification - resulting in the prevention of default and damage to its credit; A business in the creative arts area who recieved multiple TA sessions in Financials, Lending Navigation, Bookkeeping; and a media/technology business who received TA sessions in a new Pre Loan Discovery - Leading to loan approval of working capital to expand its location via renovation and launch of a new business product. Line 4a continued.. RPC achieved and fulfilled other outcomes based on our various 66 social/financial impact measurements such as: Continued fulfillment of RPC goal of First time capital access from Excluded Entrepreneurs of Color denied by conventional banks and Access to Affordable Capital: of financed businesses owned by African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans and individuals of immigrant status To that end, 70% of our new FY 2024 customers never received a loan from any financial institution. Also, RPC ended FY 2024 with our loan customer demographics of Gender 67% male and 33% female and Line 4c continued.. End of Q1: 60-Day Delinquencies: *6% slightly under our desired 6.6% threshold and 90-Day Delinquencies: *3.1% under our 4% desired threshold. End of Q2: *0% charge-off loans; 60-Day Delinquencies: *3.22% slightly under our desired 6.6% threshold; 90-Day Delinquencies: *3.22% under our 4% desired threshold. End of Q3 to Current: *30-Day Delinquencies: *0% under our desired 10% threshold and 90-Day Delinquencies: *3.4% under our 4% desired threshold.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since July 2017.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.