OFN Announces Grow with Google Small Business Fund
OFN announced today that we are working with Google to launch the Grow with Google Small Business Fund.
The $125 million fund will deliver responsible financing to CDFIs to help thousands of small businesses and nonprofits hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Google will make a $5 million grant to OFN to help CDFIs to grow and build their capacity. These funds will enable OFN’s member CDFIs to improve access to capital for the most marginalized communities, particularly women and minority small business owners.
“In the best of times, many minority- and women-owned small business owners struggle to obtain credit to start or grow their small businesses and nonprofits,” said Lisa Mensah, president and CEO of OFN. “The economic shock of COVID-19 on local businesses and nonprofits has been immediately evident in the empty streets, darkened storefronts, and stressed-to-the-limit nonprofits who are riding out COVID-19 restrictions across America. We will fight for these businesses. With the Grow with Google Small Business Fund, Google is demonstrating its commitment to building an inclusive economy. The Fund will finance and fuel the entrepreneurs that work across America to provide jobs in local communities that need them most.”
Learn more about the Grow with Google Small Business Fund in the announcement press release.
Read the announcement by Google CEO Sundar Pichai here.