Because business ownership has been a means for many Americans to build wealth, providing loans and grants to entrepreneurs of color has been seen by many as an important way to address the racial wealth gap. Although successfully reaching excluded entrepreneurs will require practices and competencies that meet their specific contexts, the lessons we have learned and practices that have proven successful will apply to all entrepreneurs who face barriers in accessing credit because of low levels of wealth, thin or nonexistent credit files, differences in cultural experiences and languages, discrimination, and/or the amount of credit they are seeking. This brief — the first in a series on this topic — discusses the core operational challenges that community development financial institutions (CDFIs) face in scaling their lending to entrepreneurs of color.
Resource Category: Access to Capital
CRA Mortgages: A Failure to Implement
Banking has changed considerably since the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was passed in 1977, and updates to its implementing regulation in the mid-1990s were soon outdated. In 2015 the agencies responsible for regulating banks subject to CRA requirements (CRA banks) began to update the law yet again. This report uses Woodstock Institute’s annual Community Lending
PPP Loans Marred by Racial Disparities
An analysis of Paycheck Protection Program lending reveals stark disparities across the country. In the LA area, businesses in White neighborhoods received loans at a far higher rate than in Latinx, Black and Asian ones.
State of the Older Entrepreneur during COVID-19
Business ownership has the potential to be a financial bulwark, especially for business owners of color. Age 45+ business owners entered the pandemic with much stronger financial cushions than similar age employees and business owners under the age of 45. However, our analysis of survey data for small employer firms collected in late 2020 and detailed interviews with 25 business owners finds that older small business owners, and particularly business owners of color, had difficulty accessing funds to stay open and have experienced significant personal financial hardship during the pandemic. The future of these businesses—and the owners’ personal financial lives—is particularly salient, given that they are the lion’s share of small businesses.
Small Business and Bank Locations
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) analyzed the relationship between large banks that make small business loans and the number of branches those banks operate in each county in the United States.
Small Biz Struggling to Access Capital
A new national survey of small business owners sheds light on their struggles to secure financing and their views on policy solutions that could help small businesses survive and grow post-pandemic.
Loan Modifications for Small Biz in a Pandemic
The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program provided forgivable loans to help businesses survive the COVID-19 economic collapse. But that wasn’t enough. About four million small businesses closed permanently in 2020, and many needed other options, like modifications to outstanding loans and credit card debt. New research from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) found that Black and Latino small business owners had less access to those options than White small business owners.
Local Small Business Lending
Lending to businesses in counties where a bank has no branches is highly sensitive to economic conditions. During the 2007 recession, distant lending contracted far more sharply than local lending, leaving the share of loans made at a distance lower than it had been at the beginning of the century. This study suggests that the presence of local bank branches might help small businesses weather economic downturns.
San Francisco Entrepreneurs of Color Fund
San Francisco Entrepreneurs of Color Fund: Creating a Continuum of Capital and Consulting The Aspen Institute First published October 2020 Structural inequities—both historical and current—have created barriers for entrepreneurs of color to build wealth and grow their businesses. The San Francisco Entrepreneurs of Color Fund (SFEOCF) seeks to address these inequities by creating a more
2019 Small Business Lending in the US
This report uses the latest publicly available lending data from banks to examine changes in small business credit for June 2017 through June 2019. The data used was collected prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and provides a precrisis benchmark on the state of small business lending.