Small Business Emergency Assistance Funding

The City of South Bend recognizes that small businesses are the backbone of our community. Small business owners have always supported South Bend, particularly through its recent growth, and make our city a better place to call home.

Small business owners have already experienced losses in revenues and face unprecedented and catastrophic losses in the coming months due to COVID-19. While we cannot predict with certainty the extent of this problem, we know that immediate, targeted help for entrepreneurs will mean the difference between businesses surviving this crisis or going under.

The City is working with community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and local financial institutions to develop resources that will prioritize helping smaller, local businesses, who have not been the main target of other aid packages at the State or Federal level.

The City is partnering with two CDFIs, Bankable and Accion Serving Illinois and Indiana, who will administer the emergency small business loans. Both organizations have long track records of lending to under-resourced borrowers, including a focus on equity and inclusion. The two loan programs are:

South Bend Small Business Resiliency Loan Fund (Accion)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of South Bend and Accion established a Small Business Resiliency Fund to provide much needed cash flow to businesses in South Bend, Indiana. Accion will lend $260,000 to approximately 10 small businesses. After the loans are repaid, Accion will re-lend the capital to additional South Bend businesses in the future. The application will be open between April 20th and April 24th, and all applications submitted during that time will be evaluated together. Accion will communicate to all applicants, those who will proceed and those who will not due to lack of funds, by April 28th. The application, eligibility criteria, maximum loan amount, terms, and other details can be found here.

QuickBridge and Reboot Loans for South Bend Small Businesses (Bankable)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of South Bend partnered with Bankable to bring their QuickBridge and Reboot Loan programs to small businesses in our community. Both these loans will be available to businesses with under 50 employees located within the City of South Bend and will be capped at $20,000. The Bankable Quickbridge Loans are for businesses who are still operating and generating sales. These loans are meant to help offset decrease in sales, slow pay customers, increase COGS, etc. Bankable Reboot Loans are directed at for-profit businesses that have had to close due to COVID-19 but would like to leverage loans to reopen. Bankable will make independent determinations and will communicate with all applicants, those who will proceed and those who will not. The application, eligibility criteria, maximum loan amount, terms, and other details can be found here.

Emergency Assistance Fair:

In order to help as many South Bend small businesses as possible learn more about the emergency loans and other COVID-19 relief, the City hosted an Emergency Assistance Fair (EAF) on Friday, April 17. Each breakout session contains Q&A with the financial institutions about potential loans. Contact and application information can be found in the Resource Guide and links below. To find out more about local financial institutions’ offerings, including Bankable and Accion’s programs, click the links below to see the recordings of the Fair: