A $500,000 Wells Fargo grant has enabled Iowa Community Capital to increase its capacity to help small businesses, according to board chair Emeritus Professor Mark Edelman.
Edelman was quoted in an article in the Jan. 15 Business Record, "Iowa Community Capital Expands Microlending Reach to Black Community."
ICC's clients are among the poorest of the poor in Greater Des Moines and have been the hardest hit by the pandemic, Edelman said. About 90% of the clients' businesses are home-based. "Access to capital is one of the hardest things for many small business operating," he said.
"Part of the (grant) program criteria was to target African American small businesses, as well as to make assistance available to other underserved businesses that were impacted by COVID."