Accion Serving the East Coast Launches COVID-19 Relief Program

Accion has launched its COVID-19 Relief Program with the aim of helping over 2,000 small business owners withstand and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving critical jobs and livelihoods.

NEW YORK, NY – March 24, 2020 – The spread of COVID-19 has taken a devastating toll on small businesses and the clients we serve at Accion. While the full economic impact of the virus is unclear, we know the fallout will be extensive and long lasting—and that small businesses, and the families who rely on them, will be the hardest hit.

As an economic first responder, Accion has launched its COVID-19 Relief Program with the aim of helping over 2,000 small business owners withstand and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving critical jobs and livelihoods. To fund the program, we have launched a fundraising campaign to raise low-interest rate loan capital, loan loss reserves, and core operating support.

Our COVID-19 Relief Program offers the following to clients:

• Loan deferment or loan restructures to 1,500 eligible clients.

• One-on-one support to small business owners to access publicly sourced disaster relief funds at the city, state and federal level in each of our core markets.

• Our COVID-19 Relief Loan to 500 small business owners who aren’t a fit for the public relief programs. This loan includes multi-month deferment on the first payment – low interest rates – additional flexibility in lending criteria.

We have decades of experience in providing disaster relief support to small businesses through our September 11 Fund (2001), our Superstorm Sandy Relief Program (2012), and most recently, our 2017 Irma Relief Fund.

While COVID-19 represents a unique challenge, we know that a quick response through collaborative donor support will ensure the survival of thousands of small businesses, whose jobs and services are desperately needed by families in neighborhoods across the country.

To learn more about how to support the program, contact Victoria Richardson at (646) 833-4546 or vrichardson@accioneast.com.

To learn more about the COVID-19 Relief Program, or to refer a business to the program, call (866) 245-0783 or visit https://us.accion.org.

To donate directly to the program, visit https://us.accion.org/eastdonate.

Please support an effort that not only preserves jobs, services and small businesses, but something equally important—a unique fabric of life called ‘the neighborhood’; a community’s home.

Published by Paul Quintero
CEO, Accion – Serving the East Coast

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