Opportunity Finance Network Awards Grameen America with Grow With Google Small Business Fund Loan and Google.Org Grant to Support Minority Women Business Owners’ Economic Recovery Amid COVID-19

New York, NY, June 18, 2020 — Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) has announced national microfinance organization serving low-income women entrepreneurs, Grameen America as first round recipient of the Grow with Google Small Business Fund loan and Google.org grant. Grameen America will receive a $5M loan and $125,000 in an unrestricted grant to address the economic fallout caused by COVID-19.

Grameen America provides microloans, financial training and support to women entrepreneurs affected by poverty in 23 branches across 15 U.S. cities. The organization will use this capital to support small businesses in its service area hardest hit by the economic impact of COVID-19 through their Economic Relief and Recovery Fund.

Grameen America launched the Fund in April 2020, with the goal of raising $72M to provide essential capital and support to the low-income women entrepreneurs the organization serves. The Grameen America Economic Relief and Recovery Fund will reach the financially underserved women entrepreneurs in their program, empowering their members with the critical support they need to rebuild their businesses and emerge from the current crisis.

Launched in March, the Grow with Google Small Business Fund delivers financing to CDFIs, like Grameen America, that are supporting the short-term recovery and long-term financing needs of America’s small businesses affected by COVID-19.  

On June 17, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company will provide to OFN an additional $45 million in loans on top of the Fund’s original $125 million to assist Black-owned small businesses. In total, Google has now committed $170 million in loans.

In addition, Google.org has made a $10 million grant to OFN to enable OFN’s member CDFIs to improve access to capital for the most marginalized communities. The unrestricted grants can support operations, loan capital, loan loss reserve, capacity building, or any other purpose.  

“Grameen America is a proud recipient of OFN, Google and Google.org’s collective investment in our program. Their support will empower the minority, low-income women entrepreneurs we serve to rebuild their communities in the wake of COVID-19,” Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America. “As our members endure the hardest financial consequences, we know that with support from our program, coupled with their own ingenuity and resiliency, the women entrepreneurs in our program will become economic engines crucial to revitalizing small businesses across the country.”

“We applaud Google for stepping in to help bridge deep gaps in access to capital for minority and women-led small businesses,” said Lisa Mensah, President and CEO of OFN, a leading national network of CDFIs. “Google’s significant investment and grant helps CDFIs to combat economic inequity during a national health and economic crisis that has been recently compounded by civil unrest.”

“The Grow with Google Small Business Fund and Google.org grants are some of the key investments that Google is making in the future of America’s small businesses. Our economy requires that small businesses prosper,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Google. “The COVID crisis has created unprecedented challenges for many small businesses, and we are committed to assisting them. We’re proud to have an outstanding partner in OFN to provide loans and grants to CDFIs who are on the front lines of the economic recovery effort.” 

There are more than 1,100 CDFIs working in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. OFN’s more than 300 members serve 58% people of color, 85% low-income, 26% rural, and 48% women (OFN Annual Member Survey, 2018). Nationwide, the CDFI industry manages more than $222 billion. 

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 About Grameen America

Founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization dedicated to helping women who live in poverty build small businesses to create better lives for their families. The organization offers microloans, training and support to transform communities and fight poverty in the United States. Since opening in January 2008, Grameen America has invested over $1.5 billion in more than 132,000 low-income women entrepreneurs. Opening originally in Jackson Heights, Queens, Grameen America has expanded to 15 cities in Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Charlotte, NC, Fresno, CA, Houston, TX, Indianapolis, IN, Los Angeles, CA, Miami, FL, Newark, NJ, New York City, NY, Omaha, NE, Oakland, CA, San Jose, CA, San Juan, PR, and Union City, NJ. 

About OFN 

OFN, a leading national network of CDFIs, strives to ensure low-income and other under-resourced communities have access to affordable, responsible financial products and services. Members of OFN are CDFIs that deliver responsible lending to help low-income communities join the economic mainstream.   

Through 2018, OFN’s network originated $74.2 billion in financing in rural, urban, and Native communities. This financing has helped to create or maintain more than 1,560,000 jobs, start or expand more than 419,177 businesses and microenterprises, and support the development or rehabilitation of 2.1 million housing units and more than 11,500 community facility projects. For more information, visit www.ofn.org. 

About Google

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. 

About Google.org

Google.org, Google's philanthropy, supports nonprofits that address humanitarian issues and apply scalable, data-driven innovation to solving the world's biggest challenges. We accelerate their progress by connecting them with a unique blend of support that includes funding, products, and technical expertise from Google volunteers. We engage with these believers-turned-doers who make a significant impact on the communities they represent, and whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change. We want a world that works for everyone—and we believe technology and innovation can move the needle.