A Gusher of $584M in Federal Aid Will Soon Open for Pa., N.J., and Del. Business Owners. Are You getting Yours?

The U.S. Senate rejected legislation last week that could have provided small businesses with up to $48 billion of additional aid to help them recover from the pandemic.

So is this the end? With the expiration of both the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the Small Business Administration, does this mean that all federal aid for small businesses has run out?

The answer is no. Soon there will be another source of federally backed funds. Small businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware will shortly be able to access $584 million as part of a new round of the $10 billion State Small Business Credit Initiative program, otherwise known as SSBCI.

What is the SSBCI? It’s a program under which the U.S. Treasury Department distributes money to states, which then gives the money to lending and financing organizations — community development financial institutions (CDFIs), community banks, minority depository institutions, investors, and other nonprofits focused on economic development — to help local small businesses get access to capital that they otherwise would not have been able to tap.

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Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a nonprofit in Philadelphia that helps both early-stage, technology-based firms and established manufacturers with funding, business and technical expertise, is an example of a local financing firm participating in this program.

“SSBCI will enable us to invest in more companies,” said Scott Nissenbaum, the group’s president and chief executive officer. “The impact of the program for us and the impact on the region is pretty dramatic because it’s that extra dollar that really allows us to be more flexible in where we invest.”

Read the full article here.

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