CNBC Op-Ed: Community Loan Funds Can Fix Flaws in Paycheck Protection Program
On April 6, CNBC published an op-ed by Seth Levine, founding partner of Foundry Group, and Elizabeth MacBride, founder of Times of Entrepreneurship, that details the “slow, piecemeal, and confusing” rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) offered under the new Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Levine and MacBride also recommend steps to accelerate funding to small businesses, including setting up and disbursing SBA funds to individual loan funds, like OFN member LHome’s new COVID-19 pandemic response loans for individuals and small businesses in the Louisville, KY, region.
Quoted in the article is OFN president and CEO Lisa Mensah, who states, “We are disappointed in the lack of broader inclusion of community loan funds in the PPP and are hopeful that we can find a way to be partners to reach all Americans and the businesses and nonprofits who are not easily reached by the larger institutions.”
Read the full op-ed.