Contact Us     Donate

    About Us     Recent News

CRA-NC History

Formed in 1986 as a project of North Carolina Legal Services, CRA-NC has played a key role in shaping the attitudes and policies of North Carolina’s banks toward CRA and community development.  Through challenges of bank mergers, CRA-NC has secured agreements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgage, small business and community development lending.  CRA-NC also provided the incentive and context for countless partnerships between the banking sector and nonprofits. This proved fortunate not only for North Carolina, but the entire Southeast region since North Carolina banks grew at a phenomenal rate during the 1990’s, expanding to become regional and national banking powerhouses.  CRA-NC proved to be a key catalyst and agitator during the 1990’s for increased investments and services. 

To date, we have challenged many financial institutions, both large and small, and catalyzed more than $40 billion in CRA commitments.  CRA-NC played a national role in helping to shape federal CRA policy.  Irvin Henderson, founding President of CRA-NC, has testified before Congress, is the founding chair of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and substantively influenced the development of current CRA regulations. 

Peter Skillern, CRA-NC Executive Director, served on the HUD/Treasury Task Force on Predatory Lending and the HUD Government Sponsored Enterprise Oversight Advisory Committee, and has testified before Congress on subprime lending in the secondary mortgage market.  In 2002, CRA-NC received the James Rouse Award for Excellence in Community Reinvestment from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.  In 2003, CRA-NC received the North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition's Sister Barbara Sullivan Award for addressing affordable housing needs in North Carolina.

"Advocating For Change: The Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina," by Irvin Henderson, Rural Voices, Spring 2005

"We knew that we had to publicize what we were doing and had to market to our constituencies the principles of financial literacy.  We knew that effective marketing and media coverage would multiply our effectiveness." 

- Irvin Henderson