Eric Robertson of Community LIFT and River City Capital.
The Community Foundation has announced a $750,000 grant to River City Capital for small businesses through the COVID-19 Relief Grant program. Businesses will be able to apply for $20,000 in grant support which, unlike loans, do not require repayment.
Preference will be given to businesses owned by people of color and to restaurants. Community LIFT will announce the process for obtaining grants soon.
Eric Robertson, president of Community LIFT and River City Capital, said, “It has been widely reported that 40 percent of all Black businesses in America have closed due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. At a time when the pandemic has lingered much longer than expected, this effort will target neighborhoods that are often forgotten and the hardest hit.”
The grant is one of a series of efforts by the Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund – totaling about $9.1 – million to build resilience for those hardest-hit by the coronavirus crisis. The Fund invests in efforts to sustain small, minority-owned businesses; help homeowners keep their houses; address the trauma and mental health effects exacerbated by the consequences of COVID-19; and build support systems for people and families in dire need.
“We’re ready to help the Mid-South rebound,” said Community Foundation president Robert M. Fockler. “We’ve moved from a triage situation to one in which we are building long-term resilience, especially for the segments of our community that have had their stability drastically threatened by the persistent consequences of this devastating crisis.”
The Fund will also award $4 million in general operating support to nonprofits, with half of those funds earmarked for small- to mid-size agencies serving priority populations. Recipients of the first $2 million in funding will be announced in the spring.
Support for 2021 grantmaking comes from several sources, most significantly philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who in December donated $8 million to the Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund, part of a $4 billion investment in effective nonprofits across the U.S. The Community Foundation was the only Memphis agency and one of 11 in Tennessee to receive funding from Scott.
In 2020, the Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund awarded $4.9 million to nonprofits across the community in immediate relief and recovery dollars.
