County directory · Georgia
CDFI lenders in Chatham County, GA
1 certified CDFI names Chatham County or a town in it as part of their service area on their own website. 4 more are headquartered here. 3 more say they serve all of Georgia. Sources: lender websites (29 Oct 2026–4 Nov 2026), the CDFI Fund list (21 Oct 2026).
- Name this county
- 1
- Based here
- 4
- Serve all of GA
- 3
A lender naming Chatham County on its website is a good sign, not an offer. Lenders based elsewhere may lend here too. Search your exact ZIP code in the finder to include lenders based nearby. Towns in this county: Bloomingdale, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Savannah, Tybee Island.
Lenders compared for Chatham County
6 with local records| Lender | Local records | Loan sizes | Head office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. F A B Church Federal Credit Union Credit union, Savannah GA | website names Savannah; headquarters here; 1 office here | ask | 3 mi |
| 2. Small Business Assistance Corporation Loan fund, Savannah GA | headquarters here; 57 SBA loans here, FY2020–FY2026 | $1,000–$5.5M | 3 mi |
| 3. Carver Financial Corporation Bank holding company, Savannah GA | headquarters here; 2 offices here | ask | 3 mi |
| 4. Carver State Bank Bank or thrift, Savannah GA | headquarters here; 2 offices here | ask | 3 mi |
| 5. Champions Funding, LLC Loan fund, Gilbert AZ | 13 home loans here, 2025 | up to $3M | 1,776 mi |
| 6. Catalyst Development CORPORATION Loan fund, Savannah GA | headquarters here | ask | 3 mi |
5 of these 6 lenders have received CDFI Fund awards, together $26.4M in fiscal years 2001–2024 (CDFI Fund award database; each lender page lists its awards). An award funds the lender, not a particular borrower.
Order: how many kinds of local record we hold (its website names the county or a town in it, headquarters, a branch, SBA loans or HMDA home loans for borrowers here), then the number of those records, then the head office's distance from the county centre. Loan sizes are the range the lender's website states. It is not a rating and nobody pays for a place. SBA loans: SBA 7(a)/504 data (FY2020–FY2026, 3 or more shown); home loans: HMDA 2025 originations (3 or more shown); branches: FDIC/NCUA; distances are straight lines from the average position of the county's ZIP codes.
Where these lenders have offices
5 lenders5 head offices and 2 branches or offices of 5 lenders on this page, within 30 miles of the centre of Chatham County. Lenders with no office nearby may still lend here; many work by phone and online.
Head officeBranch or officeApproximate (ZIP code area)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, © OpenMapTiles, tiles OpenFreeMap. Head-office points: U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.
Loan types confirmed on these lenders' websites
- Microloans (2 lenders)
- Personal / consumer loans (1 lender)
- Commercial real estate loans (1 lender)
- Credit-builder loans (1 lender)
- SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage) (1 lender)
- Small-business loans (1 lender)
Banks and credit unions with a branch in this county
3 certified CDFIs have at least one office in Chatham County (FDIC office data as of 30 Oct 2026 and NCUA branch data as of 30 Jun 2026). A branch shows presence, not a stated service area; credit unions also require membership.
- Carver Financial CorporationBank holding company · Savannah, GA2 offices in Chatham County · based hereOfficial list only
- Carver State BankBank or thrift · Savannah, GA2 offices in Chatham County · based hereOfficial list only
- F A B Church Federal Credit UnionCredit union · Savannah, GAPersonal / consumer loans1 office in Chatham County · based hereVerified
CDFI mortgage lenders active here
Certified CDFIs reported 23 originated home loans for properties in Chatham County in 2025 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: 0.3% of the 7,306 home loans that all HMDA lenders reported here.
- Champions Funding, LLCLoan fund · Gilbert, AZHome mortgages13 home loans here in 2025 (HMDA)Verified
Plus 6 more certified CDFIs with fewer than 3 loans here each (not listed).
A lender headquartered far away can appear here: HMDA counts the county of the property, not of the lender. Banks and credit unions below the HMDA reporting thresholds and most loan funds do not report, so other CDFIs may also lend here.
Source: FFIEC Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for 2025, snapshot frozen 2 Jun 2026, loan-level records read through the CFPB HMDA Data Browser API on 3 Nov 2026. Originated loans only; applications that were denied, withdrawn or not accepted are not counted. HMDA publishes each loan amount as the middle of a $10,000 band, so totals and medians are approximate. Counts under 3 are not shown. How we match lenders.
Small business and SBA lending in Chatham County
Official statisticsMedian household income in Chatham County is $71,097, 8% below the Georgia figure of $77,353 (ACS 2020–2024).
Businesses here took 40.3 SBA-backed loans per 1,000 employer businesses over FY2020–FY2026: more than the median Georgia county (31.0), rank 47 of 159.
| Measure | Chatham County | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses with paid employees (CBP 2023) | 9,037 (3.5% of the state) | 261,320 |
| …of which under 20 employees | 83% | 86% |
| Businesses without employees (Nonemployer Statistics 2023) | 28,045 | 1,163,944 |
| Median household income (ACS 2020–2024) | $71,097 (8% below the state) | $77,353 |
| SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals, all lenders, FY2020–FY2026 | 364 (297 7(a), 67 504) | 11,506 |
| …per 1,000 businesses with employees | 40.3 (rank 47 of 159 Georgia counties) | 31.0 (median county) |
| Median SBA 7(a) loan, all lenders | $349,000 | $350,000 |
| …with a certified CDFI as lender, CDC or third-party lender | 60 (16%) | 192 (2%) |
| Variable-rate 7(a): median rate over prime at approval, FY2024–26 | 2.75 pts (118 loans; 16% at the SBA maximum) | 2.75 pts (13% at the maximum) |
Approvals by fiscal year: FY2020 41 · FY2021 64 · FY2022 47 · FY2023 55 · FY2024 50 · FY2025 63 · FY2026 44.
For comparison, not an offer. SBA figures count approvals by every SBA lender for borrowers whose ZIP code lies in the county, not only CDFIs; approval is not disbursement. Rate over prime = the SBA's recorded initial rate minus the prime rate on the approval day; SBA caps it at 3 to 6.5 points depending on loan size (current prime rate and caps: methodology).
Sources: Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 and American Community Survey 2020–2024 (table B19013); SBA 7(a) & 504 FOIA data as of 30 Sep 2026; prime rate: FRED DPRIME; SBA maximums: SBA 7(a) terms. Downloaded 15 Nov 2026. How we compute these.
SBA loans made here by CDFIs
SBA data as of 30 Sep 2026Certified CDFIs were the lender, the CDC or the third-party lender on 60 SBA approvals (23 7(a) loans and 37 504 projects) for borrowers in Chatham County in fiscal years 2020–2026, from 3 CDFIs. The 7(a) loans total $5.5M approved.
CDFIs with 3 or more: Small Business Assistance Corporation (57). 2 more CDFIs made 1 or 2 each.
Counted by the county of the borrower's ZIP code. Approval is not disbursement. These are only the SBA loans of certified CDFIs; most SBA lenders here are not CDFIs, and CDFIs also lend outside SBA programs.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 FOIA loan data, files as of 30 Sep 2026, downloaded 3 Nov 2026. Our counts, cancelled approvals left out. How we match lenders.
CDFI lending recorded here (FY2022)
CDFI Fund data, released Dec 2024232 loans and investments totaling $5.9M (median $1,000) were reported to the CDFI Fund for borrowers and projects in Chatham County in fiscal year 2022, by 15 reporting CDFIs. More than half of these records come from a single reporting CDFI.
| Purpose (CDFI Fund category) | Count | Total | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home improvement | 140 | $407,033 | $500 |
| None of the listed purposes | 34 | $223,265 | $1,070 |
| Home purchase | 21 | $1.6M | $15,250 |
| Non-real estate microenterprise | 16 | $182,522 | $10,000 |
| Real estate: single-family housing construction | 9 | $1.3M | $70,174 |
| Non-real estate business | 6 | $1M | $116,663 |
| Other purposes | 5 | $863,875 |
Of 175 individual borrowers whose income was reported, 91% had family income at or below 80% of the area median.
CDFI banks and credit unions also reported 1,858 consumer loans in Chatham County totaling $5.6M (Consumer Loan Report, tract totals, so no median); they counted 29% of them as serving low-income borrowers.
Loans and investments reported in other years: FY2018 49 · FY2019 55 · FY2020 200 · FY2021 1,388.
Only CDFIs that hold an active CDFI Fund award (CDFI Program, Native American CDFI Assistance or the CDFI Rapid Response Program) report these transactions, so this is not all lending by the certified CDFIs on this page. The Fund masks which CDFI made each loan, so we cannot say which lender listed here made them.
Source: CDFI Fund, CDFI/NACA/CDFI RRP Program Award Recipient Data Release, Transaction Level Report and Consumer Loan Report public files for fiscal year 2022 (released Dec 2024; downloaded 3 Nov 2026). Amounts are original loan or investment amounts as reported. Place = the 2010 census tract of each record. How we count.
Lenders whose website names Chatham County or a town in it
Headquartered in Chatham County
The official list gives a headquarters address here. Check each lender's page for where it lends.
- Catalyst Development CORPORATIONLoan fund · Savannah, GAMicroloansVerified
- Small Business Assistance CorporationLoan fund · Savannah, GACommercial real estate loans, Credit-builder loans, Microloans, SBA-backed loans (7(a)/504/Community Advantage)…Verified
- Carver Financial CorporationBank holding company · Savannah, GAOfficial list only
- Carver State BankBank or thrift · Savannah, GAOfficial list only
Say they serve all of Georgia
- Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, Inc.Loan fund · Cleveland, GACommercial real estate loans, Microloans, Small-business loansVerified
- Community Redevelopment Loan and Investment Fund, Inc.Loan fund · Atlanta, GAAffordable housing development loansVerified
- Neighborhood Lending Partners of Florida, Inc.Loan fund · Tampa, FLCommercial real estate loans, Affordable housing development loans, Nonprofit / community facility loansVerified
Free help before you apply
These offices give free or low-cost advice: a Small Business Development Center or SCORE mentor can help with the business plan, cash-flow projections and paperwork most business lenders ask for, and a HUD-approved housing counselor can help with a homebuyer course, a budget or a missed mortgage payment. Some counseling agencies also lend; using their advice does not commit you to their loans. Call ahead to check hours and what they cover.
Business advice
- The University of Georgia SBDC Savannah OfficeSmall Business Development Center · 316 E Bay Street, Suite M, Savannah, GA 31401912-651-3200
- Savannah SCORESCORE mentoring · 111 E. Liberty Street, Suite 103, Savannah, GA 31401912-231-7877
- ACE Women's Business Center - SavannahWomen's Business Center · 305 Fahm Street, Savannah, GA 31401678-335-5600
Housing counseling
- CCCS of the Savannah Area, Inc.HUD-approved housing counselor · Park South Office Center, Savannah, GA 31406912-691-2227
- Neighborhood Improvement AssociationHUD-approved housing counselor · 1812 Abercorn St, Savannah, GA 31401912-447-5577
- University of Georgia's Family and Consumer Sciences Cooperative Extension Service (Chatham County)HUD-approved housing counselor · 17 Minus Avenue, Garden City, GA 31408912-652-7981
Sources: SBA local assistance listings, read 6 Nov 2026; HUD's list of approved housing counseling agencies (open-data version last updated 9 Apr 2025). For the current list and the services each agency offers, use the CFPB's housing counselor search (it uses HUD's list) or call HUD at 800-569-4287. Offices are placed by ZIP code, so distances are approximate.
City pages in Chatham County
Other Georgia counties
Source: CDFI Atlas, cdfiatlas.com/states/ga/counties/chatham-county/. © 2026 CDFI Atlas. Quoting with a link is welcome; republishing the pages or the compiled data is not (terms of use).