Citing financial pressures, Northern Community Investment Corp. members voted to dissolve the nonprofit during a meeting last week.
The St. Johnsbury-based community development organization has been a major player in economic development in both the Northeast Kingdom and northern New Hampshire, primarily through lending. Founded in 1975, it has made over 2,000 investments in the region totaling over $540 million, according to its website.
The investment corporation expects to close completely by the end of the year, its president, Peter Corey, said in an interview on Thursday.
“Our operating environment has changed. The workforce environment has changed. The ability to hire and hold talent has changed, and so the reality is that the company is not currently financially sustainable,” Corey said.
In March, the nonprofit’s board of directors voted to recommend dissolution. On April 19, its broader membership unanimously supported the move, according to Corey.
The balance sheet of the nonprofit is currently in a good position, Corey said. But the board was concerned about broader trends in the business lending and community development field, which he said is moving toward consolidation.
Municipal managers in the region lamented the closure.
St. Johnsbury Town Manager Chad Whitehead, who noted that NCIC is a tenant in the St. Johnsbury municipal building, said it was “unfortunate to hear.”
“We rely on them a lot to assist with things like project management, grant management,” Whitehead said in an interview on Thursday. “They’re also a wealth of knowledge on just what grant availabilities are out there and what programs the town should be looking at.”
“I will miss NCIC terribly,” Newport City Manager Laura Dolgin said in an emailed statement. “They were impactful and effective and extremely competent. NCIC helped Newport City in immeasurable ways and we are very sorry to learn of their dissolution.”
Northeastern Vermont Development Association is another player in the Northeast Kingdom business landscape. Executive Director David Snedeker said on Thursday that “we’re going to miss having them as a strong regional partner in the work that we do for the community and economic development.”
Corey said the corporation does not get any outside funding so all of its work needs to be paid by its revenues.
It did previously get help from grants but “those have essentially dried up over the years,” Corey said. He also explained that, for the grants that the nonprofit administers to other entities, the amount of money that NCIC can take out to cover its costs has shrunk. “That’s been a big factor.”
“It was decided that rather than continue and take a risk that we may not be able to unwind the company responsibly, we’ve decided that, given all the challenges, it’s probably the right decision at this point in time to unwind the company in a controlled manner,” Corey said.
NCIC is a New Hampshire corporation and, as a registered nonprofit, its assets are held in a public trust, according to Corey. An expected sale or transfer of the company’s assets this year will be overseen by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
The process to move the nonprofit’s assets, in particular its loan portfolio, will likely take six to nine months, Corey said, but he expects NCIC to “exist in some manner, shape or form” until about the end of the year.
He later said he is “absolutely certain” that its assets will end up with another organization that can continue the work. Part of the transition will be to ensure that existing loans are not affected, but Corey did say that existing grants will have to find another manager. Those efforts will be continuing throughout the year.
