JPMorgan Chase has committed $250 million globally in business and philanthropic capital to help address immediate and long-term challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations in Detroit will receive more than $1 million.
The New Economy Initiative, Detroit Employment Solutions Corp., Focus: Hope, Accounting Aid Society, ProsperUS, and Community Development Advocates of Detroit will receive funds designed to provide minority-owned small businesses with access to capital, provide underserved workers with access to job training opportunities, and support nonprofits responding to the crisis.
“Detroit’s communities are among the hardest hit during the COVID-19 crisis, which is leaving people out of jobs and threatening the survival of small businesses,” says September Hargrove, head of Detroit philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase. “Collaboration between business, philanthropy, community organizations, and the local government is key to addressing the immediate economic and humanitarian impact of this crisis and helping ensure that Detroit has an inclusive economic recovery where all Detroiters have the opportunity to benefit in its future prosperity.”
The New Economy Initiative will receive $600,000 to support small business owners in Detroit with access to emergency capital and technical assistance. JPMorgan Chase is co-funding alongside others including the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, Knight Foundation, Hudson-Webber Foundation, William Davidson Foundation, and Ford Foundation.
The Detroit Employment Solutions Corp. will receive $500,000 to help residents who lost their jobs access unemployment and job training and connect with employers through the city’s Ready to Hire program.
More than $170,000 will be given to local nonprofit organizations including Focus: Hope, Accounting Aid Society, ProsperUS, and Community Development Advocates of Detroit to help maximize their impact on the communities they serve by supporting operations, staffing, and technical needs.
“(New Economy Initiative) has activated a set of small business relief programs to provide assistance to low income business owners; to offer expert help on HR, marketing, and managing capital; and to leverage the coordinated network of small business support that exists in the community,” says Pamela Lewis, director of the New Economy Initiative. “These programs, with support from JPMorgan Chase, are addressing the specific needs of Detroit’s most vulnerable small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are intended to complement public sector interventions.”
According to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, 65 percent of families don’t have the cash buffer to weather a simultaneous income dip and spike in expenditure like the one resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. Median black and Hispanic families earn about 70 cents in take-home income for every dollar earned by white families. Racial gaps in liquid assets are twice as large. About 47 percent of small businesses in Detroit have less than 14 cash buffer days.
JPMorgan Chase is deploying philanthropic investments in communities around the world with a focus on communities of color and vulnerable populations to help them access financial and technical resources during the crisis and prevent the opportunity gap from widening as the economy begins to recover.
In the coming months, the investments and insights will inform JPMorgan Chase’s strategy in helping with recovery efforts. The firm will continue to offer resources and focus on four areas: jobs and skills, small business expansion, neighborhood development, and financial health.
JPMorgan Chase has been doing business in Detroit for more than 85 years. It has nearly 2 million customers and more than 160,000 business clients in metro Detroit. In 2014, it made investments to increase economic opportunity for Detroit residents, and collaboration among local nonprofit, government, and business leaders allowed the firm to accelerate its initial investment. In 2019, it committed to investing $200 million Detroit’s economic comeback by the end of 2022.
The global firm has assets of $3.1 trillion.
