Two CUs Receive Grant Funds to Aid Small Businesses

RICHMOND— The Virginia Small Business Resiliency Fund program has provided more than $9.7 million in grants for 12 projects throughout the Commonwealth, including projects for Freedom First Credit Union and Peoples Advantage Federal Credit Union. 

The funding will assist organizations to create programs and products that will expand access to capital and provide technical assistance for COVID-19 impacted small businesses.

• Freedom First Federal Credit Union’s Small Business Fund ($1,500,000)
  Freedom First Federal Credit Union (FFFCU) | Counties of Albemarle, Alleghany, Amherst, Appomattox, Augusta, Bath, Bedford, Bland, Botetourt, Buckingham, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Highland, Montgomery, Nelson, Pulaski, Roanoke, and Rockbridge, the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Covington, Lexington, Lynchburg, Radford, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, and Waynesboro, and the towns of Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Pulaski, and Vinton.
  
  Freedom First Federal Credit Union (FFFCU) will deploy $1.5 million in small and microloans, establish a loan loss reserve and establish an Individual Development Account program for business purposes with a focus placed on small loans and women-, minority- and/or immigrant-owned businesses in distressed communities. This funding is part of a $13 million lending initiative for over 70 businesses.
   
• People’s Advantage Federal Credit Union’s Small Business Lending Initiative ($100,000)
  People’s Advantage Federal Credit Union (PAFCU) | Counties of Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, and Sussex, the cities of Colonial Heights, Petersburg, and Richmond, and the town of Ashland.
  
  People’s Advantage Federal Credit Union (PAFCU), the only full-service CDFI in Virginia, will expand its offerings to include lending, affordable deposit products, and technical assistance to businesses in the metro-Richmond area. Funding will support the addition of a small business advocate and a loan loss reserve, fund 54 businesses and deploy $1,080,000 into the community.

The Department of Housing and Community Development developed the Virginia Small Business Resiliency Fund with the purpose of supporting Virginia-based community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to build their capacity and increase economic activity in distressed communities throughout the Commonwealth. VSBRF goals include serving small businesses adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on those sectors which have been disproportionately impacted or have been economically disadvantaged. In addition, this program is expected to increase economic activity in distressed communities around the Commonwealth and to increase the capacity of the CDFI sector to serve those target markers in Virginia.

The General Assembly allocated $10,000,000 in FY2022 to establish a special, non-reverting fund that would provide grants to CDFIs, community development enterprises, or other such similar entities as permitted by law, whose primary purpose is to provide financing to small businesses in Virginia. CDFIs are private financial institutions certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury to deliver responsible, affordable financing to historically underbanked and underserved people, small businesses, and communities.