We’re excited to announce that Pacific Community Ventures has just been awarded $500,000 from Wells Fargo as part of its Diverse Community Capital program, which offers capital and technical assistance to minority owned small businesses through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). To date, the program has generated more than 103,000 jobs across the U.S.
“Diverse small businesses face unique challenges to start and grow their businesses,” said Erica Trejo, community relations senior manager for Wells Fargo. “By working with CDFIs, we can ensure small businesses in the Bay Area have the capital and resources to help them succeed, create jobs and financially empower their families. Every community needs small businesses to create jobs and financial stability.”
As part of its new philanthropic strategy announced in June, Wells Fargo is focusing on three societal challenges: housing affordability, small business growth and financial health. Wells Fargo’s Diverse Community Capital (DCC) program is a critical component of the small business strategy and supports business owners who are African-American, Hispanic, American Indian/Pacific Islander, Asian-American, women, veterans, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
Asa member of the inaugural DCC cohort, PCV received an initial DCC grant of $350,000. This first grant helped PCV serve six-times more borrowers in 2018 than we had in 2015, prior to the award, and each of the small businesses we worked with was a woman, a person of color, and/or located in an economically distressed community. PCV has been an active participant in DCC convenings, which enable us to share our work with other forward-thinking CDFIs while learning from what they are doing.
“Small businesses owned by African American and Latinx entrepreneurs are the fastest growing, creating jobs that are critical for our communities. Funding through the DCC program has helped us empower business owners who might otherwise not have access to the capital they need,” says Bulbul Gupta, president and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures. “We will use this new grant to help small business owners grow and create good local jobs through a ’Good Jobs, Good Business’ model that combines affordable loans with free business advising, tools and incentives to create quality jobs, social impact evaluation, and field building research.”
Wells Fargo’s support for our “Good Jobs, Good Business” model supports small business owners like Lila Owens of Cupcakin’ Bakeshop in Berkeley, California. Cupcakin’ and instantly became a darling among East Bay cupcake aficionados after Lila launched the business from her home. As Cupcakin’ began to grow, Lila relocated to a nearby brick-and-mortar storefront and soon had even more opportunities to expand. When she was turned down by a traditional bank, Lila came to Pacific Community Ventures in search of capital and advising support with scaling her operations efficiently to manage this growth. In the last year, Lila’s expanded her business to another storefront in Oakland, and added several more jobs. In addition to moving her original Berkeley shop she is also set to take over the historic Virginia Bakery in North Berkeley this year.
Alongside PCV, the other newest local DCC grantees, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation, are:
- California FarmLink, Aptos, Calif. ($500,000): to increase services for farmers of color through loan capital, one-on-one technical assistance and exploration of new business models over the next three years, including a wealth-building program for farmers and ranchers.
- Working Solutions, San Francisco ($450,000):to infuse new capital into small businesses serving communities of color across the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Community Vision Capital & Consulting, San Francisco ($250,000): to support the launch of a new loan fund, in collaboration with six local nonprofits, to bring lending to historically underinvested businesses and more employment opportunities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Could your small business benefit from free advice or a fair and affordable loan? PCV can help. Learn more about our advising program or our loan program.