Emergency fund launched to aid minority-owned businesses in Massachusetts

Springfield - A coalition is raising money to support black and latino owned businesses across the state. Garden of Eat'n is located at 439 White St. in Springfield. Here are owner Zephrin Mongroo and pastry chef Kamisha Bryant. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

BOSTON — A coalition has established the Business Equity COVID-19 Emergency Fund to help ensure minority-owned businesses survive the pandemic

“As the COVID-19 outbreak continues, small businesses are under immense stress and Black and Latinx-owned businesses are particularly vulnerable to the impact of this crisis,” said Betty Francisco, co-founder of Amplify Latinx, one of the organizations that make up the coalition. Other members include the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, the Boston Foundation’s Business Equity Fund, CommonWealth Kitchen, the Foundation for Business Equity’s Business Equity Initiative, and Ujima Boston.

The fund aims to raise $10 million in capital to provide no interest bridge loans and crisis response support teams to Massachusetts-based Black and Latinx businesses across the state with revenues of at least $250,000.

Glynn Lloyd, executive director for the the Foundation for Business Equity, said the crisis response teams will help small business owners determine where resources should be spent.

“These are small business experts, consultants, people who have run their own businesses successfully in the past,” he said. “They are going to work with the owners to determine where the needs are whether that’s financial planning, marketing or elsewhere.”

Francisco said the money will serve as a stopgap for small businesses which would otherwise have to layoff employees or shutdown all together.

“To avoid unemployment and other burdens that would exacerbate the existing racial wealth gap, we need to do more, and quickly. We formed the coalition as an immediate way to address this critical need for capital and expert support. To make a wider and deeper impact, we’re calling on others to join us,” Francisco said.

The loans, which will range from $10,000 to $100,000, can also be used for salaries, inventory, or equipment. The loans will have two-to-three-year terms, requiring no payments for one year and will have no prepayment penalties.

“We got over $3 million in demand from the first round of applicants, so we will hopefully be able to fund raise enough money to keep the program going for several rounds,” Lloyd said.

He said the goal of the coalition is to help businesses not only survive during the pandemic, but also to thrive once businesses open again across the state.

“This (non-essential businesses shutdown) is obviously something we have never seen before and I don’t think the retail and restaurant industries will be the same after this,” he said. “This is about innovation and being creative and working with businesses so that they can remain open or re-open and succeed.

Organizations or individuals interested in contributing to the fund can contact Orlando C. Watkins at Orlando.watkins@tbf.org or (617) 338-2291, or Lloyd at g.lloyd@fbequity.org or (617) 828-4228.

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