Adaptability Provided by Flexible Funding Is Essential to LISC LA’s Fight for Small Businesses During the Pandemic
5.26.2020
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LISC StoriesEconomic Development
Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, funding across sectors has shifted from its normal, multidirectional pathways towards one, unilateral goal: keeping people healthy, and keeping the economy afloat.
The federal government has distributed stimulus checks to businesses across the nation. Healthcare workers have taken extra shifts to keep up with the demand of overcrowded hospitals. Corporate CEOs have taken massive pay cuts to keep employees on deck.
At LISC Los Angeles, every program, every training, every small business fund has pivoted in some way to keep the financial impacts of this pandemic at bay and to build resilience for those affected.
This driving focus is quintessential to the survival and recovery of small businesses across Los Angeles and beyond – it’s a focus less broad than before, yes, but it’s a focus made possible by trying new approaches.
Flexibility allows us not to hesitate. It allows us to jump into action. And without the ability to commit our programs, our partnerships, and our resources to the crisis at hand, we could not make the impact we do today.
Now, more than ever, flexibility is at the root of this upheaval – on all ends of the spectrum.
Without small businesses shifting towards delivery, without private hotels opening their doors to individuals experiencing homelessness, without organizations pivoting to best serve the needs of this unprecedented moment in history, all of the nation’s unilateral goals would not be possible.
LISC LA is proud to be doing the same.
Flexibility allows us not to hesitate. It allows us to jump into action. And without the ability to commit our programs, our partnerships, and our resources to the crisis at hand, we could not make the impact we do today.
Funders like Bank Leumi help us make that impact, because they allow us that flexibility. Funding from LISC LA supporters helps us support our community in turn, and their flexible approach to support allows us to work with our partners to adapt, grow, and improve in any given scenario.
During COVID-19, LISC LA will continue to use this gift of flexibility to best serve our community. Over the past two months, the shifts have already been tremendous – a testament to the innovative work of our partners and the generous support of our funders. LISC programs like ASCEND LA have pivoted, making our small business acumen training completely free to participate in, and refocusing the curriculum on resilience during the pandemic. LISC LA has spearheaded an educational webinar series called Keeping Our Shops on the Block to provide small business with information on emergency financial resources and creative strategies to keep doors open during the pandemic.
Our office is also proud to be a Paycheck Protection Program lender, and we have provided small businesses across LA with the resources they need to be resilient in this difficult time. We’ve created toolkits for local governments, made resource guides and spearheaded Small Business Relief Grants.
LISC LA’s Kiva program has shifted its focus to small food businesses, which often provide the only geographically accessible, fresh groceries in low-income communities and food deserts.
Without the flexibility provided by our ongoing financial supporters like Bank Leumi, LISC LA would not have the opportunity to reassess, step back, and find new solutions for new problems.
Here, support from the community goes back to the community.
And while we all have the unilateral goal of getting through these difficult times, we are also united by our flexibility, our innovation and our support for one another.
