Our Story

In the early 1980s, housing advocates across Michigan were asking a critical question: how could communities with the greatest need gain access to affordable, reliable capital? That question gave rise to the Michigan Housing Trust Fund, rooted in the idea of borrowing from those with resources to lend to those without, and reinvesting that capital to strengthen neighborhoods and expand opportunity.

Around the same time, a parallel movement was taking shape within Michigan’s faith community. In 1988, Bishop H. Coleman McGehee challenged the Episcopal Church to put faith into action by creating an economic justice ministry—one that would move beyond charity to investment. The result was the Bishop H. Coleman McGehee Economic Justice Fund, which mobilized faith-based investors to deploy capital intentionally in underserved communities. Over time, this vision expanded into an interfaith loan fund, welcoming partners from diverse traditions united by a shared commitment to dignity, equity, and justice.

In 2004, these two paths—one grounded in housing advocacy, the other in faith-based investing—converged to form a single organization, which would later become Opportunity Resource Fund. Today, another two decades later, OppFund stands as one of Michigan’s most impactful community loan funds, shaped by decades of successful lending, principled investment, and the enduring leadership of faith-based and values-aligned investors.