Business financing in Philadelphia County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
29 institutions are headquartered inside the Philadelphia County line, Philadelphia included, and 9 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Home FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Philadelphia County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 38
- DOORS HERE
- 29
- BASED HERE
- 53
- PA COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Business Financing
- People
- 1.6Mresidents of Philadelphia County
- Covers
- Philadelphia
- Elsewhere in PA
- Allegheny County →31 doors — the biggest list of any other county in Pennsylvania
- State
- Pennsylvania →53 of 67 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
Asian Bank · Beech Capital Venture CorporationOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
American Heritage Credit Union · Eagle One Credit Union- American Heritage Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Asian BankPersonal · Business capital
- Beech Capital Venture CorporationCommunity lending · Business capital
- Community First Fund – PhiladelphiaBusiness capital
- Economic Opportunities FundCommunity lending · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
12 of the 38 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- Enterprise Center Capital CorporationBusiness capital
- Enterprise Center Capital Corporation, TheCommunity lending · Business capital
- Entrepreneur Works FundCommunity lending · Business capital
Show the other 21Show fewer
- Impact Loan Fund, Inc.Community lending · Business capital
- North Philadelphia Financial PartnershipCommunity lending · Business capital
- Philadelphia Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Philadelphia Accelerator FundCommunity lending · Business capital
- PIDC Community CapitalCommunity lending · Business capital
- Reinvestment Fund, Inc., TheCommunity lending · Business capital
- West Philadelphia Financial Services InstitutionBusiness capital
- Women's Opportunities Resource CenterSBA microlenderCommunity lending · Business capital
- Asian Finanical CorporationCommunity lending
- Holy Trinity Baptist Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- M.a.b.c. Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Mount Carmel Baptist Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- New Life Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Northwood Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Paper Converters Local 286/1034 Credit UnionPersonal
- Penn Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Pinn Memorial Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- S I Philadelphia Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Transit Workers Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- University of Pennsylvania Students Credit UnionPersonal
- Wayland Temple Baptist Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Philadelphia County line. You can walk in.
- Eagle One Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Everence Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Fedchoice Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Franklin Mint Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Freedom Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- NO AGENDA
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 38 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 23 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
- Sun Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
Show the other 3Show fewer
- Trumark Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Advantage Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Toledo Fire Fighters Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Accion Opportunity FundAccepts ITIN
Nonprofit small-business lender. Accepts ITIN in place of SSN. Serves most states, in English and Spanish.
Business capital - Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital - Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Jun 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
Philadelphia County and the City of Philadelphia are the same territory, which means one set of city rules sits on top of the state's for every business here. It also means an unusually deep bench of mission lenders headquartered inside the county line. This guide explains the financing types that fit a rowhouse-and-storefront economy, who qualifies when income arrives as 1099 payments or cash at a counter, which documents to gather, which doors actually serve this county — including ITIN-friendly national nonprofits — and the Pennsylvania and city rules that decide whether your paperwork holds up.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Business financing is money you borrow to start, steady, or grow a business and repay on agreed terms. The forms that matter:
- Term loan — a fixed amount over months or years, for a van, equipment, a build-out, or a first large contract.
- Line of credit — an approved ceiling you draw on only when you need it, which fits contract work paid thirty or sixty days after completion.
- Microloan — a smaller loan from a nonprofit or mission lender, built for short business histories and thin credit files. In this county, this is the most common first yes.
- Equipment financing — the truck, oven, lift, or compressor is the collateral, so the asset carries part of the decision.
- Invoice financing — selling the right to collect an invoice at a discount. It closes a cash gap, it is expensive, and it is not a loan.
- Grants — real but rare, almost always through a public office or a nonprofit rather than an advertisement.
The local economy decides which fits. Philadelphia is a rowhouse city with old housing stock, which supports a permanent trades economy: roofing, masonry and pointing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, window and door work, abatement, and small general contracting. Hospitals and universities anchor a steady stream of construction, food service, security, and cleaning contracts.
The port and the warehouse corridor along the Delaware run on drivers and freight handlers.
And the commercial spine of every neighborhood is small storefronts — corner groceries, bodegas, barbershops and salons, auto repair, tax and money-transfer shops, taquerías, panaderías, and restaurants.
That commercial spine is concentrated along corridors, not downtown: the Fifth Street corridor through Fairhill and Hunting Park, the Ninth Street market corridor and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia, Olney and Feltonville, Frankford Avenue, and West Philadelphia's avenues. Most of the mission lenders below were built specifically to fund businesses on those blocks.
Forget what the banks say.
Every lender is answering one question: can you repay, and can you prove it. Credit score matters less here than whether your income has a shape someone can read.
Strong candidates in this county look like:
- A licensed trade subcontractor with repeat general contractors and a stack of paid invoices — the most common profitable small business in Philadelphia.
- A cleaning or security contractor with signed monthly agreements. Recurring revenue is the easiest thing in the world to underwrite.
- A corner store, bodega, bakery, or restaurant with a year or more of deposits landing in a business account.
- An owner-operator driver in freight, drayage, or last-mile delivery with settlement statements from dispatchers.
- A salon, barbershop, or auto shop with a lease in the business's name.
- A small landlord-operator running two to four units in a rowhome they also maintain.
- Someone newly out of a payroll job, now billing as a 1099 subcontractor.
That last case and the cash-heavy storefront are the two that get declined most often, for the same reason: the money is real but invisible. If customers pay you in cash, deposit it.
All of it, daily or weekly, into a business account.
A cash business with twelve months of consistent deposits is financeable; the identical business with cash in a drawer is not. Stop paying business costs from a personal card, and let the account tell the story for you.
An ITIN in place of a Social Security number does not disqualify you from business credit. It narrows which doors say yes, which is why the list below is ordered rather than alphabetical. Thin credit or a new business points you at a microloan first — that is exactly what microloans exist for.
Get your papers in order.
No lender asks for all of this at once, but most will ask for the majority. Gathering it early is the cheapest way to speed up a decision:
- 01Government-issued photo ID
Plus your ITIN or Social Security number.
- 02State business registration
Plus your Philadelphia Commercial Activity License and city tax account number.
- 03Contractor registration and proof of liability insurance, and your city trade license if your work requires one.
- 04Personal tax returns for the last two years
And business returns if the business has filed.
- 05Three to six months of business bank statements — twelve if you have them.
- 06Simple profit-and-loss statement
A one-page sheet you typed is acceptable and far better than nothing.
- 07Lease
If you hold a commercial space, or the certificate of occupancy for the address.
- 08One-page written description
What you do, who pays you, what the money is for, how you will repay it.
- 09Signed contracts
Purchase orders, or a list of repeat customers.
- 10The quote or invoice for any specific equipment you are financing.
- 11List of business assets
Vehicles, trailers, tools, machines — if you are offering collateral.
- MISSING ONE?Ask Iris which one you're missing.ASK A QUESTION ↓
The doors worth knowing.
Philadelphia has one of the deepest benches of mission-driven business lenders of any county in the country, almost all headquartered inside the city line.
ALL 38 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 38
- DOORS HERE
- 83
- ACROSS PA
Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A community development financial institution, certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not, and used to a file that is not clean.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Treasury-certified as a CDFI, which is a mandate rather than a courtesy: reaching borrowers the mainstream market passes over is the job.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and community lending where a bank has already said no.Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A CDFI — a mission lender, not a branch network. It is measured on who it reaches, which is why a thin file is not the end of the conversation.
BEST FORCommunity lending where a bank has already said no, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Lanham, Maryland. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
A city full of small contractors and cash businesses is a target-rich environment for expensive money. Here is what to refuse.
An MCA is not a loan. Someone buys a slice of your future deposits at a discount and debits your account daily or weekly. Fast, legal, and among the most expensive money available to a small business. If a broker calls your cell before you applied anywhere, this is usually the product.
A legitimate lender takes its fee from the loan at closing. Application fees, processing fees, or a wire before you hold a written approval mean hang up.
Pennsylvania is a state where commercial documents sometimes include language letting a funder obtain a judgment against you without a hearing. Read every page, or pay someone an hour to read it with you. This one line has cost Philadelphia business owners their bank accounts.
Borrowing against the work truck to cover payroll ends with no truck and payroll still owed.
Never sign with empty fields, no stated rate, or no stated total payback. Ask for the total number of dollars you will repay, in writing.
A loan does not make an unpermitted build-out legal, and the violation outlives the loan.
No real lender says the offer dies tonight. Any sentence designed to stop you from comparing is itself the warning. Get two written offers, compare total cost, and sleep on it.
Everything below is set by Pennsylvania, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 38 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Philadelphia is the one county in Pennsylvania where city compliance is as heavy as state compliance. Lenders here know it and check.
You register the entity or a fictitious name with the Department of State, and open sales tax and employer withholding accounts with the Department of Revenue. That paper trail is the first thing an underwriter matches against your bank statements.
Nearly every business operating in the county needs a Commercial Activity License and a city tax account, and the city levies its own business tax on receipts and net income plus a wage tax on people who work here. Trades and construction work also require licensing through the city's licenses and inspections office, and any change of use or build-out needs permits and a certificate of occupancy. Financing a build-out without permits is how a loan becomes a stop-work order.
Pennsylvania requires contractors who do residential work to register with the Attorney General's office, and the law sets requirements for what a home improvement contract must contain. An unregistered contractor has a much harder time enforcing a contract to get paid — and an underwriter looking at a residential remodel file will notice.
If you own the building, the city's property tax standing affects your financing. Delinquency can be brought current through a payment agreement, and owner-occupants may qualify for a homestead reduction. Ask the city's revenue office directly before you assume a delinquency is fatal.
Pennsylvania runs machinery, equipment, and small-business financing programs through state authorities and certified local economic development organizations, generally accessed through a participating lender rather than directly. Treat these as offices to call; terms change.
If you pay helpers, Pennsylvania takes the employee-versus-subcontractor line seriously, and construction has its own rules. Getting it wrong creates exposure that surfaces exactly when you apply for money. Ask the SBDC or a local bookkeeper first.
The short version.
- 01
If you run a business or subcontract in Philadelphia County, you are in one of the best-served counties in America for mission lending. Several nonprofit and community lenders are headquartered inside the city line, they exist specifically to fund businesses on the commercial corridors, and most of them provide free help putting your file together.
- 02
You do not need perfect credit. You do not need a Social Security number to have options — the national nonprofits above lend to ITIN holders by design, and with any other institution the correct move is to ask directly whether they lend to ITIN borrowers. Many CDFIs do.
- 03
Do four things this month: deposit every dollar of revenue into a business account so your statements tell the truth about your business; get your state registration, city Commercial Activity License, and any contractor registration current; write one page on what you do and how you will repay; and book free counseling with the SBDC, SCORE, or one of the county's nonprofit lenders before you apply anywhere.
- 04
Then compare at least two written offers on total cost of repayment. Read every page for confession-of-judgment language. And refuse any offer that requires you to decide today.
Same county, another question.
Home FinancingPurchase, renovation, HELOC, and bridge loans for homeowners and investorsSEE IT IN PHILADELPHIA COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN PHILADELPHIA COUNTY →53PA COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in Pennsylvania, in this same lane.83 institutions fund small businesses inside Pennsylvania county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.