Dear ICA Community:
This is a challenging time for our community. The Bay Area’s small businesses have been hard-hit by COVID-19. As our community fights the virus, our companies have seen steep declines in revenues, customers, and wholesale orders. ICA’s companies employ more than 500 people and we are determined to help them. With your help, we can.
The ICA team has connected with many of our small businesses to assess their most important needs, and provide guidance and support during this extremely difficult time.
What we’re hearing:
Companies are struggling to keep employees on staff, want to avoid lay-offs, are looking for short-term capital immediately, and are working through how they will remain in business after the shelter in place is lifted.
What we’re doing:
- ICA is creating a Rapid Response Liquidity Fund, in the form of a zero interest loan, to address the immediate gap in capital. The needs of the businesses we serve are urgent and our companies don't have time to wait for other programs to be fully implemented.
- We are offering our Rapid Response Support for small businesses to:
- Help assess the immediate liquidity needs of the business
- Help access emergency relief funds from the SBA and other programs
- Stretch the capital our small businesses currently have
- Start to rethink business strategies to respond to our new normal.
We are continually updating related resources for Small Businesses. We have also put together a list of actionable steps for every business to consider during the pandemic.
Where you come in:
If you are an entrepreneur, tell us how we can support your business, and you, personally. If you are an advisor, consider stepping up your advising commitments – much of the work can be done virtually and your time is more valuable than ever.
If you are one of our generous funders, help us launch our Rapid Response Liquidity Fund. Our goal is to raise $5 million to help address the gap between what our companies need now, and government subsidies and other relief funds that may become available, so that as few people as possible lose their jobs and financial stability.
And if you are a community member, continue to patronize your local small businesses – by ordering delivery from locally-owned restaurants or buying gift cards to your favorite stores – last but not least, please consider donating to ICA.
Allison Kelly, CEO
