Good news: Pacific Community Ventures has received a Project Innovation Award from NBC Bay Area, Telemundo, and the Comcast NBCUniversal Community Impact. We’re going to use the funding to support our Good Jobs Agenda and deliver services and programs that address the needs of those impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
We’ve also received a new grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to support PCV’s Business Advising Crisis Response. Since the start of this pandemic, demand for PCV’s free BusinessAdvising.org advisng services has jumped five-fold, and that’s only growing as many business owners are figuring out how reopen safely, hire back workers, and pivot online.
PCV is a member of the California Small Enterprise Task Force (CASE Force), which has compiled a resource guide for California small businesses impacted by COVID-19. BASE Force is focused on collecting local, state, federal and private/nonprofit resources for Bay Area small businesses impacted by COVID-19 and disseminating this information in a digestible way. In addition, we provide small businesses with weekly access to live support from lawyers and financial professionals via virtual office hours, and we’re hosting ongoing free webinars. More here.
PCV is happy to join the Page 30 Coalition, a partnership committed to making sure minority-owned and other underserved #smallbiz get the support they need to survive the #COVID19 economic downturn and #BuildBackBetter.
COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for workers, businesses, and the organizations that support them. The Job Quality Tools Library by The Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative The Aspen Institute, chock full of tools from Pacific Community Ventures’ Good Jobs, Good Business, can spark practical action and help us build back better.
What can you do to ensure that good jobs are an essential part of the inclusive recovery agenda, and that black and brown small business owners are an intentional focus of our lending now more than ever? Join our Small Business Support Circle.
Since the COVID-19 crisis began, we at PCV have had a 1500% increase in traffic to our website each day, received over 600 loan requests, and our team is fielding hundreds of phone calls for our non-SBA small business loans. Demand for our pro bono BusinessAdvising.org platform has also increased 5X, and it continues to be one of the few resources that’s readily available while sources of capital dry up or stay out of reach, especially for entrepreneurs of color, immigrant entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, and those from historically underinvested areas.
Through the Small Business Support Circle, companies, investors, organizations, and foundations invested in the success of small businesses will help PCV significantly scale the reach and impact of the program, and extend it to their own communities — including those they serve, employ, or do business with, especially those who can use the additional support this year to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. For more information please contact us here.