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The overwhelming support for the Black Lives Matter movement and Black businesses has grown significantly over the past month. While more initiatives arise, companies continue to step up to collaboratively uplift the movement and the Black community. As part of a new plan proposed by the National Minority Supplier Development Council ( NMSDC), 30 blue-chip companies have pledged to raise at least $1 billion over the next 12 to 18 months from corporate donors in order to “support minority business development, economic inclusion, and growth,” reports Black Enterprise . According to the NMSDC, the In This Together Campaign was created as a means to help its certified minority firms and other minority-led businesses tackle the blows brought on by COVID-19. “Prior to the pandemic and social injustice events, NMSDC was working strategically to close the economic gap between Black and minority businesses; now, the gap has widened due to the unprecedented activities that changed the...
Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur, Mark Cuban, recently took to his Twitter to offer a helping hand for Black-owned and women-led businesses who were shut out of the federal Payment Protection Program (PPP). Cuban tweeted on Wednesday, calling for businesses led by people of color and women to share their stories of being locked out of PPP funding. If you are a minority or woman owned, or any company that believes you are eligible for a PPP loan, but have not been approved, please post an overview of your status here and I will do my best to connect you to a bank. There is still more than $100B left. Let's get that money — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 20, 2020 Cuban revealed that $100 billion worth of funding is left, and banks are eager to earn the 5 percent from PPP loan disbursements in the Twitter thread. https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1263126195668910083 Cuban’s effort to connect Black-owned businesses with legit banking institutions isn’t his first stance against the...
Last week the government’s Payment Protection Program (PPP) came under fire after major corporations received millions in COVID-19 relief while small businesses were denied any federal aid. Now, Black government officials are calling for more to be done in the area of small Black-owned businesses receiving financial help just as the major corporations have. Black Enterprise reports that Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and members of the Congressional Black Caucus are calling for the Treasury Department to compile racial data in regards to which businesses and corporations are receiving PPP funds. Rep. Ayanna Pressley believes racial data is needed to make sure the $349 billion issued by the government via the CARES Act is being allocated fairly. “I’m pushing for that racial data collection when it comes to who the lenders are lending to. That which gets measured gets done,” Pressley told Basic Black . “And so having that data and that transparency in real-time will allow us to...
Small business owners are anxiously waiting to see if Congress will inject more money into the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the federal rescue program that failed to reach the vast majority of small businesses it was intended to help the first time around. A new LendingTree survey found that just 5% of business owners have received a PPP loan, though 60% had applied for funding. Survey respondents were eager to submit their applications once the program opened, but many struggled to communicate with bankers as the entrepreneurs’ financial situations further deteriorated — and then the $349 billion emergency funding ran out of funds after 13 days. Many of the 1,260 small business owners surveyed expressed their frustrations. “I’ve kept my employees on payroll even though we closed because it is the right thing to do,” one respondent said. “Unemployment in our state is only $275 per month. They can’t live on that. Now, I’m in limbo waiting for the PPP money. I have no idea when,...