Last week, before leaving office, former Governor Ralph Northam announced that more than $9.7 million in grants had been awarded for 12 projects across the Commonwealth through the Virginia Small Business Resiliency Fund (VSBRF), helping organizations to create programs and products that will expand access to capital and provide technical assistance for COVID-19 impacted small businesses.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) developed the VSBRF 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 state. 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 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.

The following projects will receive Virginia Small Business Resiliency Grant awards:

1. Enterprise Development Group’s Small Business Resiliency Fund | $1,500,000
2. Freedom First Federal Credit Union’s Small Business Fund | $1,500,000
3. Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Small Business Capital Access Fund | $1,500,000
4. Virginia Community Capital Economic Equity Fund 2022 | $1,500,000
5. Latino Economic Development Center’s Small Business Recovery Program in Fairfax County | $955,820
6. Community Business Partnership’s Small Business Resiliency Program | $700,000
7. Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project’s Virginia Small Business Resiliency Fund | $589,180
8. Expanding Food and Farm Micro-and-Small-Business Lending in Virginia | $555,000
9. Community Investment Collaborative’s Microloan Program | $555,000
10. Alternative Lending Products & Technical Assistance for Underinvested Small Businesses in the Greater Richmond Region | $150,000
11. Building Capacity for CDFIs to Support Underserved Businesses in Appalachian Virginia | $100,000
12. People’s Advantage Federal Credit Union’s Small Business Lending Initiative | $100,000