Michael L. Diamond
Asbury Park Press
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) As Michael L. Diamond reports, “the Pascale Sykes Foundation’s grant is designed to help small business owners who traditionally have been overlooked by larger lenders.”
Red Bank
A Red Bank-based foundation is donating $1 million to the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey in a bid to provide Black-owned businesses with more access to money and expertise, officials from the two groups said Wednesday.
The Pascale Sykes Foundation’s grant is designed to help small business owners who traditionally have been overlooked by larger lenders.
“I think there’s going to be quite an impact,” said Frances P. Sykes, a Rumson resident and president of The Pascale Sykes Foundation.
The foundation, chamber and New Jersey Community Capital, a nonprofit lender focusing on community development, are partnering on an initiative called the Equitable Small Business Initiative.
Black-owned businesses have been hurt disproportionately hard by the pandemic’s impact on the economy. While the number of business owners overall fell 22% nationwide from February to April 2020, the number of Black business owners fell 41%, economist Robert W. Fairlie found.
The African American Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise $5 million — starting with The Pascale Sykes Foundation grant — and jump into a nontraditional role: It is working with New Jersey Community Capital to eventually make loans and provide business guidance, said John Harmon, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer.
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The financing is geared for Main Street business owners who have up to 10 employees and need $10,000 to $75,000 in capital, so-called micro-loans that larger banks have avoided making, Harmon said.
In New Jersey, 93% of Black-owned businesses are sole proprietorships, Harmon said, and often don’t have a team they can fall back on to provide technical assistance.
“Having the African American Chamber of Commerce as a conduit to help these businesses is a potential game changer,” Harmon said.
The Pascale Sykes Foundation is sunsetting in January after 30 years, during which it has tried to make big waves with its donations despite operating in relative anonymity, Frances Sykes said.
Sykes and her late husband, Donald, an educator who once led Rumson Country Day, hoped they could donate money to help small businesses rebuild the South Jersey economy.
They partnered with organizations that supported not only low-income individuals, but also their families, seeing the stress that came from simply trying to stay financially afloat. The foundation during its span has donated upwards of $60 million.
The latest donation to the chamber fits the foundation’s mission, Sykes said.
“Families are not stupid,” she said. “They can do it themselves. They just need to know how to navigagte the system and the tools to do it and the connections. They need the connections.”
Black-owned business owners interested in the Equitable Small Business Initiative can contact the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey at www.aaccnj.com, or 609-610-6310.
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