Atlanta Black Chamber Foundation Small Business Opportunity Fund.
Our initial goal was to establish a pilot funding program to impact a minimum of 10 under-resourced businesses in the form of a grant. In our next phase of this program, we will establish a cohort of candidates and track these businesses’ ability over the next 18 months to create innovative ways to generate additional revenue, pursue micro-lending opportunities, and transition into traditional lending products with the goal of expanding to enterprise levels of operations. In our next phase, we seek to secure larger funding in the amount of $500,000 for the first half of the year to impact 100 plus businesses and social enterprises that are focused on job creation and investing in local programs and projects within their designated community.
“This program has had a positive impact on the participants by allowing them to receive an injection of needed capital. Grant programs such as this provide an excellent entry to move into more traditional financing opportunities. It is our goal to provide that linkage between traditional and non-traditional finances as we advance efforts in this space.”