The nonprofit lender DreamSpring has introduced a new loan product to help contractors move projects ahead despite rising costs. The Fast Forward loan, which provides short-term financing for 1-3 months at 0% interest, is specifically for contractors, service providers, project-based businesses, and construction industry businesses. Funds can be used for working capital to complete projects or get new initiatives off the ground.
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7A Community Advantage Still Available
The U.S. Small Business Administration created the 7A Community Advantage loan program as a pilot program to help small businesses in underserved markets. The program was scheduled to expire on September 30, 2022.
Continue readingDreamSpring Commits to Expanded Lending
The nonprofit lender DreamSpring has embarked on a 5-year plan to escalate its annual impact ten-fold over the organization’s 2019 lending levels by increasing its focus on entrepreneurs of color, low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs, people with disabilities, and other groups that are often underserved or marginalized.
Continue readingDreamSpring Has Record Year
Small businesses that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic were the greatest beneficiaries of services provided by the nonprofit lender DreamSpring in 2020.
When the pandemic hit early in 2020, DreamSpring quickly adapted to a fully remote work model and pivoted from business-as-usual to providing economic triage alongside an array of partners, which included community-based organizations, banks, federal and local government agencies, philanthropies, individual donors, and existing clients. DreamSpring’s ability to serve as economic first responders to the smallest, most vulnerable businesses in the crisis by providing access to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds and other resources was crucial to keeping thousands of businesses afloat.
The results are impressive.
Continue readingDreamSpring Helps Salsa Manufacturer Meet Increased Demand During Pandemic
When the first wave of coronavirus hit the United States in early 2020, Arian Gonzales and her husband, Richard, didn’t know how the pandemic would affect their 20-year-old Albuquerque company and the employees who produce its award-winning salsas.
Fearful that Cervantes Food Products Inc. would be forced to halt production for two months and that they would lose their five employees, the couple contacted DreamSpring—a multi-state community development financial institution (CDFI) based in New Mexico—to apply for a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan.
The emergency loan allowed the Gonzaleses to keep paying their employees while the company spent available cash stocking up on jars, lids and other packaging that was expected to become scarce. And it’s a good thing they did because the company was deemed “essential manufacturing” under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order, and demand for its products quickly skyrocketed.
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