From our friends at Opportunity Fund:
Thank you for agreeing to be part of our campaign to amplify the voices of small business owners and partnering with us to get them to sign onto a letter calling on the OCC and FDIC to prioritize small businesses in their proposed CRA reforms. The letter to the regulators asks that small businesses should be prioritized in CRA, not redefined. The letter states that the small business lending definition should remain at $1 million to encourage banks to meet the financing needs of the majority of small businesses.
Please help us get as many small business owners to sign on to the letter today, it will take them only a few seconds!Below you will find the advocacy resources to help you conduct your own campaign to get small business owners to sign onto our letter to the OCC/FDIC. The sign-on deadline for small business owners is Friday March 6th. The sooner you are able to engage your small business network the better. Please let Gilberto know when and how you plan to reach out to small business owners in your network and we can provide additional support if necessary.
For example: Opportunity Fund will be conducting an email campaign communicating with 8,000 small business owners in English and about 2,000 in Spanish. We will be using the below email templates to reach out in both languages. We will also be using the social media toolkit to engage small business owners on our social media platforms.
English Advocacy Resources
– Outreach email template to small business owners can be found here
– English sign-on form can be found here (where small business borrowers will submit their information)
– English comment letter to the OCC/FDIC from small business owners can be found here
– Social media kit can be found here
– Visuals can be found here
Spanish Advocacy Resources
– Outreach email template to small business owners can be found here
– Spanish sign-on form can be found here (where small business borrowers will submit their information)
– Spanish comment letter to the OCC/FDIC from small business owners can be found here
– Visuals can be found here
Thank you again for being part of this movement to protect small business owners and help increase the access of affordable and responsible capital. Please reach out to Gilberto Soria Mendoza at gmendoza@opportunityfund.org or 408.538.8171 with any questions.
Note: Today, the OCC and FDIC announced a 30-day extension to the comment period for the proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Submit your comments before the new deadline, April 8, 2020.