Winrock International receives $500,000 grant from Visa Foundation for small business assistance

Winrock International has received a $500,000 grant from the Visa Foundation to promote economic growth in the U.S. South and Southeast by helping small businesses access loan assistance from the Southern Opportunity and Resilience (SOAR) Fund.

Through the Visa Foundation-funded SOAR Technical Assistance Project (TAP) project, Winrock and partners will provide support to small business owners seeking capital in seven of the 15 states served by the SOAR Fund: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.

All small businesses in these seven states that have been impacted by COVID and have fewer than 50 employees are eligible for assistance. SOAR Fund loans are designed to reach the smallest of small businesses as well as those that have been historically underbanked, including those in rural areas and those owned by women, people of color and immigrants.

“With funding from the Visa Foundation, we will improve access to the unique loan opportunities presented by the SOAR Fund,” said Linsley Kinkade, Winrock’s senior director of U.S. Programs. “The target is primarily those business owners who want to connect to SOAR Fund lenders, but who haven’t been able to, yet. The grant will help us better serve those small business owners by helping them strategize, plan and document how they would use a SOAR loan. We can provide technical assistance to revise and resubmit loan applications if necessary, as well as support to overcome other business-related barriers to obtaining loans to help these businesses survive, adapt and thrive.”

The SOAR Fund was created in early 2021 through a partnership of local and national community lenders to provide economic recovery loans to small businesses in the South and Southeast. As of mid-2021, of the 649 small businesses that applied for loans through SOAR, more than 280 were still awaiting a match with participating SOAR Fund lenders. The Visa Foundation funding is aimed at helping Winrock and partners address some of the issues contributing to that backlog, in part by speeding up the matching process and providing other assistance.

“We are excited to support Winrock’s work with the SOAR Fund to enable equitable access to capital at scale for historically underserved small businesses,” said Graham Macmillan, Visa Foundation President. “The Fund’s approach of providing patient and affordable financing alongside technical assistance will help generate growth and resilience among small businesses and the communities they serve.”