This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Black People and COVID-19 | Key Impacts A new national survey of African American small businesses was conducted by Washington, D.C.-based Creative Investment Research. The survey asked questions about the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance (EIDL) Programs. The survey was intended to get a true pulse of how effective the lending programs have been. Sixty four percent (64%) of survey participants that said they applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), only 19% got funding. Even those receiving funding, however, got far less than what they asked for or expected. As survey respondents were predominantly Black businesses, this gives us some insight as to why unemployment is high and growing among Black Americans. What can Black people do immediately? Apply for the stimulus check of $1,200 - 100% probability rate of receiving; Apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) - much lower probability rate of receiving PPP, on...

Today's addendum to the CARES Act includes the following: Section 101 provides amendments to the Paycheck Protection Program and to the Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and Emergency Grants. The agreement increases the authorization level for the Paycheck Protection Program from $349 billion to $659 billion , and increases the authorization level for the Emergency Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) Grants from $10 billion to $20 billion . See our video on the EIDL Program: https://youtu.be/SzwQp11n-YQ   (As we said in the video, you will want to document your EIDL and PPP applications. We still feel this program will have a hard time reaching women, Black, Hispanic and Asian small businesses. It has also been shown to provide more loans to red states than blue .) The law also creates a set-aside for Insured Depository Institutions, Credit Unions, and Community Financial Institutions for the Paycheck Protection Program. It defines Community Financial Institutions as minority...