Kentucky Highlands Community Development Corporation (KHCDC) is pleased to announce it has been selected as a recipient of an Open for Business grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation. The grant funding will be used as a working capital concessionary loan product to provide cash to small businesses that have been impacted by closure or restricted access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grant is part of Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund, which launched as an approximately $400 million small business recovery effort across the United States to help entrepreneurs recover and rebuild. The initiative focuses on three key areas: increasing access to capital through CDFIs, technical assistance, and long-term recovery and resiliency programs for diverse small businesses.

While the economic challenges in KHCDC’s target market pre-date the current COVID-19 crisis, the COVID-19 outbreak and the associated economic collapse has challenged Kentucky’s small businesses more than most states. The pandemic has made it difficult for entrepreneurs to keep their doors open, retain employees, and rebuild. The funding from Wells Fargo will allow Kentucky Highlands Community Development Corporation to provide more small businesses with access to capital necessary to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and be ready for growth when the pandemic is over.

Kentucky Highlands Community Development Corporation, along with the organization’s other development subsidiaries have acted as a catalyst for change in rural communities throughout eastern Kentucky that have historically been plagued by high rates of poverty and unemployment. KHCDC works to spur economic development and job maintenance and creation in their targeted region by offering a wide range of financial and technical support services to businesses, social enterprises, and community facilities and entrepreneurs that lack access to capital and conventional credit markets.

For more information on lending programs we offer, visit https://www.khic.org/loan-programs/