SPECIAL GRANT
SMALL BUSINESS EMERGENCY FUND
Thanks to everyone who donated! With your help, we were able to profide emergency support to 11 small businesses in Trenton to fix damages, deal with related costs, and get back to being open as part of the Trenton community.
At the request of community activists, I Am Trenton Community Foundation established this special fund to support small businesses in Trenton that experienced damage on the night of May 31 - June 1, 2020. We joined forces with a crowdfunding effort on GoFundMe by Lisa Trinh and Daniella Virgen that raised over $5,000 in a week, and worked together to distribute the funds raised. We contacted over 30 small businesses flagged as needing help by community members. We also continuously shared information with the City of Trenton's Division of Economic Development and the Trenton Downtown Association (TDA), both of which had separate emergency response grant programs, to make sure that businesses got the funding they need quickly and nobody fell through the cracks.
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100% of donations went to small businesses that were impacted, with a priority to support businesses owned by people of color and immigrants. In addition to supporting physical repairs, businesses could use IAT-raised funds to support other unexpected expenses related to the business being closed, such as helping employees who needed help making ends meet. We were able to raise a total of $17,000 and provided grants to 11 businesses.
Small Business Emergency Fund Stats
Businesses funded
11
Dollars awarded
$17k
Donors
136
Median grant
$2000