Dedicated to working with small businesses to help underserved and disproportionately impacted businesses thrive.
About Our Small Business Work
ABIC is dedicated to implementing small business programs to assist businesses, particularly those owned by BIPOC and immigrants.
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Accomplishments
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.