By Rich Collins | Staff Writer
Leaders of three nonprofits on Tuesday gathered to celebrate global bank JPMorganChase’s $1 million investment in a program designed to support and grow small businesses in New Orleans.
It’s the biggest check to date for the three-year-old Financial Wellness Collaborative, a joint project led by nonprofit business incubator Propeller with help from Thrive New Orleans and Fund 17, two entrepreneurial support organizations.
The program aims to improve the success rate of startups through education, one-on-one coaching and connections to lenders. It offers financial coaching, loan package preparation, accounting support, credit counseling and help with licensing and credentials. Since 2022, the program says it has helped nearly 400 entrepreneurs and program participants.
The three nonprofits that created the collaborative each serve slightly different markets. Propeller supports ventures that have a positive impact on the community. Fund17 serves early-stage ventures. And Thrive is focused on startups working in green infrastructure.
The program teaches entrepreneurs how to manage their taxes, improve their chances of getting a loan and boost their personal business credit scores.
The focus on one-on-one assistance helps “build trust and relationship over time as businesses grow,” said Victoria Adams Phipps, JPMorganChase vice president of global philanthropy, who said the organizations have built strong relationships with loan officers who are transparent about the reasons why someone may get a loan or not.
Phipps said the Propeller team reached out to her three years ago to pitch a new partnership.
“Many of the companies they were in conversation with were lacking critical inputs that were necessary to facilitate growth,” she said at Tuesday’s event. “That might have been access to networks, expertise or customers. But for many of them, it was access to capital that was hindering their progress.”
The goal of the collaborative was to address that need.
Lenders participating in the program include New Orleans-based Liberty Bank, along with Hope Credit Union out of Jackson, Mississippi, and two national community development financial institutions: TruFund and LiftFund.
“We supported that initial pilot of the work back in 2022, and we were thrilled to see that the model worked,” said Phipps, who works in several states but is based in New Orleans.
Some of the small business owners who have benefited from the program were at Tuesday’s event, including Travis Williams of Nola Steele. He said the program has helped his company build its back office and obtain capital.
“We have great credit scores, and we have great relationships with other banks, but yet we weren’t able to get the financial backing that we needed until we brought it up with Propeller and Thrive,” he said.
Read the original article here: https://www.nola.com/news/business/innovation/jpmorgan-chase-new-orleans-small-businesses-grant/article_e562d60d-dab8-4452-8a43-ef7a39a6cf97.html
