June 3, 2020 / Kevin Dick / Small Business
Dear Carolina Small Business Family,
We are dream catchers.
For thirty years, we have made it our mission to realize the dreams of potential and existing small business owners throughout the State.
The past few months have been hard for us all. The uncertainty and hardships of the pandemic have resulted in waves of frustration for many. It has only gotten more difficult the past few days as we watched the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. These deaths are painful and have brought trauma to our communities.
In response to these deaths, many took to the streets in displays of civil action, which sometimes resulted in property damage. With economic impacts already being felt far and wide during this pandemic, the unrest has caused extensive damage to central business districts that have shaped our economy and now are suffering even more.
Small businesses are our neighbors, our friends, and part of our family. We all feel the impacts that small businesses feel when we have fewer places to shop, fewer places to eat, and fewer places to congregate.
At CSBDF, we want our small businesses to know that we’re here to serve them and to uplift the vibrancy of North Carolina! We stand with you during this stressful and difficult time. We are committed to serving small businesses in underserved communities by providing loans, business advisory, and advocacy.
We can help small businesses adapt to this new environment by directly connecting them with business advisory services that can be delivered both one-on-one and in group formats, such as webinars. Existing CSBDF borrowers can also obtain loan deferrals and modifications.
We’re also still offering loans through the NC Rapid Recovery Loan Program, the Mecklenburg COVID-19 Small Business Stabilization Loan Fund, and the CSBDF & Mecklenburg County’s Small Business Loan Program. Although our City of Raleigh Relief Fund is currently closed, if you’re an individual or organization interested in contributing to the Fund, we’re still accepting donations to directly serve Raleigh small businesses affected by COVID-19.
We want small businesses to dream again. And we want to continue to catch those dreams by giving small businesses their best chances of seeing the other side of this pandemic and through these challenging times.
We’re here for you, and together, we will see this through.
Sincerely,
President & CEO
Carolina Small Business Development Fund