Wells Fargo is giving Charlotte businesses $20 million, no strings attached. Here’s why
Editor’s Note: On Sept. 28, the Foundation for the Carolinas launched its program Beyond Open, funded by Wells Fargo’s $20 million donation.
The program will distribute direct grants to small businesses and small business support organizations in Charlotte across three rounds from 2022-2024. Eligible applicants include business owners in Charlotte-Mecklenburg who identify as a minority, woman, veteran, or LGBTQ. Round one applications will be open until Oct. 28.
The story below is from November 2021, when the program was first announced.
Wells Fargo is donating $20 million to benefit small businesses in Charlotte, the bank announced Friday morning.
The funds will be given out as grants to about 1,000 local small business owners.
Wells Fargo is sending the funds to the Foundation for the Carolinas, which will distribute them to Charlotte businesses as part of the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative. That $250 million program is aimed at addressing racial disparities in Charlotte.
The bank’s donation comes from Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund, launched in July 2020 to help small businesses recover from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fund focuses on racially and ethnic diverse small business owners, and was formed with fees earned from administering federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, Wells Fargo said in a news release.
The money is meant to help local entrepreneurs build wealth through their businesses without going into additional debt. Distributing the donation as grants rather than loans will maximize its impact, CEO Charlie Scharf said.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of so many communities,” said Scharf, who attended the announcement of the grant in uptown Charlotte Friday. “This is an incredibly important statement about what we think of the Carolinas, about what we think of Charlotte and what we think about our obligation, our ability to help.”
Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco but has its largest employment hub in Charlotte, where it employs more than 27,000 people. The $20 million gift is one of the bank’s largest donations in the city,
and will be the first of five such investments across the U.S.
How will the money be distributed?
The Foundation for the Carolinas is building a program to distribute the funds based on specific criteria and hopes to start handing out the cash by the end of next year, foundation executive vice president Brian Collier said.
The non-profit is forming a stakeholder advisory board of business and community leaders to discuss the program’s implementation and hopes to publish eligibility requirements late this spring, Collier said. Priority will be given to small businesses in Charlotte’s corridors of opportunity, six neighborhoods identified for economic reinvestment by the city.
Wells Fargo’s donation will help overcome decades of inequality in access to capital, Foundation for the Carolinas president and CEO Michael Marsicano said. The $20 million donation will create “direct pathways to wealth creation” by immediately adding to small business balance sheets, he added.
Other donations
Several other Charlotte companies have announced substantial philanthropic gifts in recent weeks as part of the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative. Mayor Vi Lyles announced the investment, the largest of its kind in city history, this month.
Bank of America is committing $25 million to the initiative as part of its own $1.25 billion racial equity plan. Charlotte-based Truist, the combination of BB&T and SunTrust, is committing $8 million.
Other participating firms include Lowe’s, Duke Energy and Atrium Health.
Wells Fargo’s gift, though not previously announced, will also count toward the initiative’s $250 million goals.
“The vision (is that)... Charlotte sets the standard as an American city for achieving racial equity, social justice and economic opportunity,” Marsicano said. The latest donation from Wells Fargo is “perfectly aligned” with that goal, he said.
Charlotte’s largest banks aren’t the only financial institutions launching significant philanthropic campaigns in the city. In October, Fifth Third Bank announced it would invest up to $20 million in Charlotte’s West End neighborhood, aiming to spur economic reinvestment in the historically Black part of the city.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
