Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund announced that Unitil Corp., the Hampton-based utility company, has pledged to donate $100,000 to a program that helps low-income families save for education, buy a home, or start a business.

The Individual Development Account (IDA) program, coordinated by the Loan Fund, provides a 3:1 savings match along with 12 hours annually of economic literacy training for participants. Funds for the savings match are provided by private companies, government agencies, churches and local charities. The program is administered by a collaborative of community-based non-profit organizations.

Close to 1,000 New Hampshire residents have participated in the program since 2001, accumulating, through their own savings and the IDA match, almost $1.5 million. Three-fourths of the program’s graduates use their savings to purchase homes.

“IDAs are based on the idea that people escape the cycle of poverty not just by earning more money, but by acquiring assets, like homes or an education, that serve as investments,” said Juliana Eades, president of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. “By working with us to provide the savings match for IDA participants, companies like Unitil help low-income working families improve their economic security, self-sufficiency and quality of life”

 “The IDA program is an excellent community investment opportunity that yields positive long term returns in the form of individual and community economic advancement,” said Bob Schoenberger, Unitil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  “The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund has achieved tangible success for this program in the areas of New Hampshire that we presently serve, and we determined that a significant investment by Unitil would fit well with our pending acquisition of Northern Utilities – both demonstrate Unitil’s long term investment in and commitment to the economic infrastructure of New Hampshire.”

The Loan Fund (www.theloanfund.org), a nonprofit organization based in Concord, connects people and families with the loans, training and advice that allow them to buy and keep homes, have secure jobs and become economically stable. 

Unitil (www.unitil.com) is a public utility holding company with utility subsidiaries providing electric service in New Hampshire and electric and gas service in Massachusetts. Unitil serves 115,000 customers in 37 communities in the capital and seacoast regions of New Hampshire and in north central Massachusetts.  Upon consummation of the recently announced acquisition of Northern Utilities, Unitil will add 52,000 gas customers in 44 communities in Maine and New Hampshire.  Usource L.L.C., Unitil’s non-regulated business, offers energy brokerage services to large energy users throughout the northeast.