Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) today launched the Oakland Restorative Loan Fund – $2.5 million in free, zero-interest small company loans. This special program is because of community investments from UCSF and also the City of Oakland, with grant support from funders like Bank of America's Neighborhood Builders program, Citi Foundation, Battery Powered, and GoFundMe. This fund can help combat gentrification and displacement, and support business people as state and federal grant programs begin to end. As with every PCV loans, there aren't any application fees and no minimum credit score to use.
During this initial launch, PCV is reaching Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and AAPI-owned businesses located in the Fruitvale area, West & East Oakland, North Oakland within the Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District, and Chinatown.
PPP has ended for small business owners, and many small company grants programs have dried up. 95% of Black-owned smaller businesses that requested PPP were rejected — and 99% were rejected for bank loans before the pandemic. 45% of Black-owned small businesses, 36% of Latinx-owned, and 25% of AAPI-owned went under in the first 3 months of the pandemic. And also at the same time frame, people of color have make the highest quantity of start up business applications in 2022. PCV is committed to shaping a far more inclusive recovery and deploying impact-first capital to partner with entrepreneurs creating good jobs. Through September 2022, 84% of PCV's loan capital went to women and/or BIPOC-owned businesses, and 85% has gone to small businesses situated in economically distressed areas.
“The pandemic hit our communities in Oakland hard, with the economic and health crises falling hardest on Black, Brown, and AAPI communities,” says Bulbul Gupta, President and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures. “As PPP and grants programs end, hesitancy to take on debts are more heightened, and entrepreneurs striving to keep their businesses open need restorative capital and business coaching. We've built the Oakland Restorative Loan Fund together with neighborhood partners best positioned to reach the entrepreneurs most historically excluded, and we hope it serves as a model for high-impact community investment: one that combines private capital with philanthropy to support racial and economic justice, and also the creation of good jobs that build community wealth again.“
“PCV's Oakland Restorative Loan Fund's zero-interest loans are another financial life-line for struggling small businesses,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “The launch's concentrate on small businesses owned by people of color in certain in our most distressed neighborhoods will inject financial resources into communities that weren't able to gain access to previous federal and state recovery assistance. The City is proud to support this effort to help bring essential capital and good jobs in Oakland.”
“As Oakland's fourth-largest employer, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland recognizes our unique position to positively impact the health and well-being of our community,” said Francesca Vega, UCSF Vice Chancellor for Community & Government Relations. “In adding to Pacific Community Ventures restorative loan fund, we're promoting health equity and an equitable economic recovery for small and diverse businesses throughout Oakland to scale and grow, resulting in healthy and thriving families and communities.“
Small business owners can find out more and apply here.
PCV's loan program can there be for small businesses which have been most excluded from the traditional economic climate and many SBA programs, such as Black, Indigenous, and POC-owned businesses, women and LGBTQI+ business people, returning residents, immigrants and refugees, and other low-income communities.
These are business people like Keba Konte of Oakland's Red Bay Coffee. They're successful yet can't secure loans from banks big enough to grow their businesses, and also the amount of funding offered by most microlenders just isn't enough. Entrepreneurs like Keba create stronger jobs and stronger communities. I began my entrepreneurial journey to create specialty coffee more accessible to a broader audience of underserved people while building in fair relations along the entire value stream,” Keba says. “We hire people that have high barriers to employment, and that just involves us naturally, but what comes to us naturally is different from other coffee companies.”
Red Bay Coffee's business design comes at a crucial amount of time in Oakland's history when working-class people – and people of color, in particular – are becoming priced from their neighborhoods. Keba hopes that by building an effective business and paying livable wages, he can allow them to stay. PCV has been proud to utilize Keba and also the Red Bay team for several years now.
“As federal savings relax, the Black Cultural Zone CDC supports this opportunity to provide critical recovery funds to Black companies that were excluded throughout the pandemic but remained unwavering in their resolve for providing livable wages, safe places to work, and building a strong cooperative economy for East Oakland”, says Ndidi Love, Manager, Economic Development Services, Black Cultural Zone CDC.
“Oakland Black Business Fund is happy to partner with Pacific Community Ventures to ensure that Black businesses receive capital that aligns with our economic justice agenda. The Oakland Restorative Loan fund will allow the Black business owners we support to confidently borrow low to no cost capital like a next thing in their ongoing financing strategy” says Trevor Parham, Cofounder & General Partner, Oakland Black Business Fund.
“ESO Ventures is proud to become a partner of PCV’s Oakland Restorative Fund and make sure the Black and Brown businesses so necessary to the vitality of Oakland’s neighborhoods have access to the patient capital they need to grow and thrive. These 0% interest loans would be the follow-on investment to the ESO Capital in the Community Fund, and allow our entrepreneurs to construct an Oakland where individuals want to live, work, and buy,” says Alfredo Mathew III, Partner, ESO Ventures.
“The Oakland Restorative Loan Fund will inject zero-cost loan capital to the Oakland communities, allowing small entrepreneurs to recuperate from the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic,” says Patti Chang, CEO of California Feed The Hunger Fund.
“The Oakland Restorative Loan fund comes in an opportune time and is only the capital access partnership that The Unity Council’s Onward Oakland / Adelante Oakland technical assistance program must fund and fuel economic recovery and mitigate displacement of our commercial corridors within the Fruitvale and across East Oakland. We look forward to being certainly one of Pacific Community Ventures’ trusted messengers and connecting our businesses to these crucial resources,” says Chris Iglesias, CEO, The Unity Council.
“Battery Powered is honored to aid local entrepreneurs through the Oakland Restorative Loan Fund. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the Bay Area — they drive economic mobility, keep dollars in our communities, and bring about the culture and character in our neighborhoods. Philanthropy includes a part to experience in promoting the development and resilience of local BIPOC and AAPI businesses, and reimagining an economy located in equity and justice,” says Colleen Gregerson, Executive Director, Battery Powered.
We're looking to open this program to more small businesses in neighborhoods all over Oakland once we raise more capital. If you wish to help by partnering around, or funding the development from the Oakland Restorative Loan Fund, e mail us here.
About Pacific Community Ventures
Pacific Community Ventures envisions a world of thriving communities where everyone has a fair shake. Our mission is to invest in smaller businesses and create good jobs for working people. We achieve our mission via a “Good Jobs, Good Business” model that mixes affordable loans with pro-bono advising; our BusinessAdvising.org platform, impact measurement and research; and tools and small grants to create dignified good jobs that address racial and gender wealth gaps. Pacific Community Ventures is really a 501c3 nonprofit community development lender (CDFI), along with a member of the Responsible Lending Coalition.
