Apoyo a las pequeñas empresas de ABIC

The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) made its mark at the start of the 2020 pandemic by focusing its work on small, rural, and minority-owned businesses.

• ABIC’s Small Business Community Navigator Technical Assistance Program and its Hub and Spoke model were successfully piloted with the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) in Fall 2020. It was later adopted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for a $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program.
  • 13 HUBS and 100+ SPOKES
  • 25,914 Business Visits
  • 35,547 Phone Calls
  • 40,437 Webinar Registrations
  • 7,430 1-1 Sessions
  • $250 million of grant disbursements
• ABIC has advised senior White House administration officials, the SBA, U.S. Department of Treasury, and the National Economic Council. ABIC also testified before Congress on demonstrative results with hard-to-reach BIPOC, immigrant, and rural small businesses.
• ABIC assisted numerous businesses navigating the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and secured $8.1 million in loans for 219 small businesses, largely BIPOC and immigrant owned, with an average loan amount of $37,000. Typical clients included barbers, beauty salons, daycare centers, restaurants, and mom-and-pop stores.
• ABIC launched a technical assistance program for State of Illinois’ Business Interruption Grant (BIG) in September of 2020 that ran through May 2021. The program was able to secure $88 million for BIPOC and immigrant-owned small businesses.
• ABIC is leading efforts in Illinois for PPP loan forgiveness.
• ABIC is leading a consortium of technical assistance programs for the State of Illinois’ Back to Business Grant (B2B) that launched in August 2021.
• ABIC directly assisted 237 businesses to receive more than $1.4 million in PPP loans, with an average amount of $6,000.