In 2023, the Center for Community Self-Help (CCSH) — a Durham-based nonprofit umbrella organization that oversees several community development financial institutions — granted $300,000 to its policy affiliate, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). The CRL then distributed $10,000 to the Center for Economic Integrity (26-0026603), based in Tucson, AZ, which later reported $5,048 in lobbying expenditures.
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) functions as the advocacy and research arm of its parent organization, the Center for Community Self-Help (CCSH) — the nonprofit umbrella that owns mission-driven lenders like Self-Help Credit Union. This structure allows CRL to focus on policy and lobbying while its affiliated CDFIs manage the actual lending.
The CRL’s grants to groups like the Center for Economic Integrity were not isolated. At least four of its 2023 subgrantees later reported lobbying expenditures, suggesting a recurring pattern where funds originating from taxpayer-supported sources are circulated through internal affiliates before reaching advocacy organizations. This structure makes it difficult to determine how much public money ultimately supports lobbying activity, and whether these flows comply with federal limits on indirect political spending by nonprofits.
IRS Form 990 filings show that CCSH has consistently received substantial taxpayer-backed grants: $212,500 (2023), $362,500 (2022), $420,000 (2021), and $9,413,498 (2020). Each year, these funds were reported under Part VIII, Page 9 of CCSH’s filings. While such support is common for community-oriented institutions, the scale of public money underscores the need for transparency as those dollars flow through the organization’s internal network.
Even as a charitable umbrella group, the CCSH has repeatedly reported lobbying activity — spending $9,087 (2023), $17,900 (2022), and $18,400. Though modest compared with its grant income, the consistent pattern points to a deliberate advocacy agenda within its nonprofit operations.
According to the Durham Reporter, the Trump administration has eliminated all staff from the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, a federal agency that had distributed over $500 million to Durham-based Self-Help Credit Union and its affiliates. Officials claimed the fund had made illegal awards influenced by race, gender ideology, and climate policies. The layoffs come as part of a broader executive order restricting agencies to their core legal functions. The move follows controversy surrounding Self-Help’s involvement in the $6.97 billion Climate United Fund, whose EPA grant was later frozen amid fraud allegations and is now the subject of ongoing litigation.
