Foundation For The Carolinas announced 116 small businesses within Charlotte’s Corridors of Opportunity have been chosen through a competitive review process to receive grants totaling $4.8 million from the second round of the Beyond Open small business grant program.
Beyond Open Round 2 grants range from $10,000 to $150,000 and do not need to be repaid. The grant program, established with a $20 million grant from Wells Fargo, has distributed a combined total of $10.7 million in its first two rounds, with a third grantmaking round scheduled for 2024.
“Our community’s small businesses are critical change makers for economic mobility, employment, and a range of positive community impacts,” said Tracy Russ, FFTC special advisor for civic initiatives, who is leading the program. “With the support of Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund, Foundation For The Carolinas is honored to help small businesses thrive as leaders within the Corridors of Opportunity and across the community through the Beyond Open program.”
“Working with the Foundation For The Carolinas, we are accelerating small business growth across Charlotte and hundreds of small businesses are benefiting along the way,” Jenny Flores, head of small business growth philanthropy for Wells Fargo, said. “This grant program is an example of enabling entrepreneurs to invest in their business so they can provide more jobs in the community and grow.”
A six-month metrics report from July 2023 by the Urban Institute at University of North Carolina Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University includes self-reported data gathered from Beyond Open Round 1 grantees who participated in a recent survey. The data shows that 89% of Round 1 grantee survey respondents reported increases in the total number of jobs provided within their small businesses, for a total of 214 new jobs created across all survey respondents. In addition, Round 1 grantee survey respondents reported 450 jobs preserved. Seventy three percent of Round 1 grantee survey respondents reported an increase in projected revenue.
A Beyond Open round one grant was used to make repairs to an older building occupied by Saigon Night Restaurant and Karaoke Bar in Charlotte’s Central/Albemarle Corridor. “We were unable to open as a restaurant in our building without funding to fulfill necessary repairs,” Tony Pham owner of Saigon Night, said. “Now I’ve been able to fulfill the requirements needed to offer food in addition to the karaoke bar, and a place where different people come together, create connections and friendships in the community.”
Beyond Open also released a Small Business Resource Guide created in collaboration with the CLT Alliance Foundation. Beyond Open announced focused support for the CLT Alliance Foundation’s community outreach efforts to connect small business owners to Regional Innovation and Support for Entrepreneurs (RISE), a digital small business resource platform that will be launched by the CLT Alliance Foundation later this month. The Beyond Open Resource Guide and community outreach support for RISE are among Beyond Open program offerings included in a new “Access for All” effort that continues support for organizations in the small business ecosystem and seeks to expand equitable access to small business resources in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community.
Beyond Open Small Business Grant Program (Beyond Open) is administered by FFTC Partners For Empowering Communities, a supporting organization of Foundation For The Carolinas. The program is made possible by support from Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund. The Beyond Open grant program will help diverse, small business owners in Charlotte-Mecklenburg by investing in capital assets such as equipment, technology, inventory, and real estate, for the purposes of relieving poverty, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, reducing neighborhood tensions, and combatting community deterioration. Specifically, Beyond Open grants will focus on retaining jobs, encouraging job growth and economic development, and inspiring new entrepreneurial endeavors in communities with low economic mobility (with a focus on Charlotte’s “Corridors of Opportunity”), as well as creating opportunities for small businesses to provide goods or services in, or start businesses in, areas of affluence where minority business owners have been historically under-represented. More information and the application are available at beyondopenclt.com.
