The California Relief Grant launched over the Christmas season of 2020 and ended on September 30, 2021, with the state granting $4 billion to California small businesses.
CAMEO played two main roles: we partnered with Lendistry and we partnered with 17 member organizations, aggregating smaller organizations into a cohort to meet the required deliverables. As a Lendistry partner, we helped facilitate dozens of partner calls with approximately 100 participants each. We also gave feedback on the program and website to make it more accessible and understandable to underserved entrepreneurs.
Our cohort assisted more than 4,600 applicants with over 2,400 hours of assistance. Additionally, 406 applications were submitted on behalf of applicants. CAMEO fielded approximately 14,000 emails, answering questions and routing them to the appropriate partner.
Partner organizations held 286 webinars that reached almost 12,500 people. Telemundo and Univision aired five stories, and organizations marketed the program on social media and company websites.
The CAMEO cohort worked to expand their reach to high-impact areas through creative and rigorous outreach. Some of the highlights include:
- Partners supported 10 languages: English, Spanish, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, Ukrainian, Russian, and Vietnamese.
- Mission Economic Development Agency – MEDA (MEDA) promoted the CARGP by walking the blocks in the Mission Street corridor in San Francisco.
- Several organizations did Facebook Live events.
- Centro Community Partners joined efforts with more organizations to prepare two webinars in Spanish and with this cover the questions that applicants had about the next steps.
- Raising our Voices partnered with the Mexican Consulate and Radio Zion of LA to reach a broader range of audiences.
- Alliance for Community Development offered a text hotline.
- CAMEO ran Google Ads that specifically targeted underserved communities.
- CAMEO strategically formed partnerships with organizations with specialized services, such as: El Pajaro CDC (operates the commercial kitchen incubator program) and COOK Alliance (provides services to micro and small-business owners that work in the food service industry).
Thanks to our wonderful cohort! We can’t wait to do it again.
Alliance for Community Development, Arcata Economic Development Corporation, Bethel LA CDC, Centro Community Partners, CIELO, COOK Alliance, Economic Development & Financing Corporation, El Pajaro Community Development Corporation, Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Levantando Nuestras Voces, Mission Economic Development Agency – MEDA, Oakland Indie Alliance, OmniWorks, Opening Doors, Inc., Prospera, TMC Community Capital, and Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative.
Check out this testimonial from Glen “Bubba” Chung from Omniworks helped apply for the grant program.