Miami Foundation getting $20 million grant from Wells Fargo for minority small business owners
The Miami Foundation said Friday it accepted a $20 million donation from Wells Fargo to assist Miami-area minority small business owners with buying assets to help stabilize their companies.
The grant, spread over three years, is the largest the 55-year-old foundation has ever received. The money is coming from profits Wells Fargo gleaned from administering the federal Paycheck Protection Program, the emergency pandemic assistance effort. The banking company put those profits in a $400 million Open For Business program, and is working with groups nationally like the Miami Foundation to support entrepreneurs affected by COVID-19.
“At the end of a very painful two years, we are grateful that Wells is taking all its profits from PPP that were intended to keep businesses strong and use that for further long-term recovery efforts,” Miami Foundation CEO Rebecca Fishman Lipsey said.
The foundation is forming a strategic advisory group featuring small business owners and other community leaders to determine how to disburse the funds. It has set up a website, miamifoundation.org/miamiopenforbusiness, that businesses should visit to learn more about the available funding.
As an example of how the money could be used, Fishman Lipsey noted a local cleaning business that must make unnecessary long-term expenses to lease equipment like a power washer that it can’t afford to buy. Some area entrepreneurs will receive technical assistance through the Wells Fargo program.
Gustavo Perez, lead social impact and sustainability specialist at Wells Fargo, said in a statement that Miami-Dade County was selected as one of five U.S. markets for the final part of its Open For Business Fund to assist small business owners in building equity in their firms, and that the Miami Foundation was identified here as the “ideal” partner.
The Miami Foundation already has invested more than $16 million in local pandemic relief efforts, including awarding 423 individual grants totaling $11.3 million to support small nonprofits in their financial recovery. Fishman Lipsey said more than 90% of Miami businesses are small businesses, with at least 80% having 10 employees or fewer.
“It has been straining for them to stay afloat in the changing economy and in the face of the pandemic,” she said. “We want to be seeing historically disadvantaged communities able to support businesses that can grow and sustain generational wealth. For our foundation, we have a deep commitment to equity, and now Wells Fargo has expressed the same goal.”
On a national basis, Wells Fargo said, its Open for Business Fund has reached more than 152,000 small business owners, helping to support an estimated 255,000 jobs. Roughly 85% of small businesses served by grantees are projected to be owned by racial and ethnic minorities, the bank said.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 12:01 PM.
