Tag Archives: DreamSpring

DreamSpring Has Record Year

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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.

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DreamSpring Helps Salsa Manufacturer Meet Increased Demand During Pandemic

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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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