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Seedco Financial Services in Louisiana
Who We Are:
Seedco Financial Services (SFS) is a national, nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) with $120 MM in assets under management. Working with local partners, we provide affordable financing and technical assistance to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and anchor commercial projects in low-income and economically distressed communities. Our financing programs are designed to fill critical capital and capacity gaps within local markets. SFS is a subsidiary of Seedco, a national community development intermediary that creates opportunities for low- wage workers and their families in economically distressed areas.
Our Expertise in Economic Recovery:
Following September 11, we designed and implemented a small business assistance program called the Lower Manhattan Small Business and Workforce Retention Program. Over the course of two and a half years, we helped re-start or sustain nearly 1,500 businesses and kept thousands at work through an integrated package of assistance that included 450 loans worth nearly $25 million, 800 grants totaling $8 million, 1,350 employee wage subsidies at $4 million for 290 small businesses, and $4 million in technical assistance to 385 small businesses. In addition to this work, we mobilized our New York City community network to re-employ almost 700 dislocated workers by providing accurate assessments, connections to skills training, supportive services, and job placement and retention services.
Our Work in Louisiana:
SFS and its parent organization, Seedco, have been working in Louisiana for over fifteen years, designing and implementing homeownership and economic development projects in the area. However, in April 2006 we opened the New Orleans office at Xavier University of Louisiana to assist the small business community affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Since that time we have developed and are implementing a multi-pronged economic recovery strategy in New Orleans that is making a substantive impact in the small business community.
Our Progress to Date:
Over the last six months, SFS has closed loans totaling $534,000 to eight minority-owned businesses in Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Tammany Parishes. We have coupled our lending activities with a range of capacity building technical assistance.
Our three primary programs include:
The Vietnamese-American Community Initiative
SFS has dedicated $1 million towards assisting the Vietnamese-American community, one that has made great strides on its own but lacks the necessary capital for a full recovery;
Before Hurricane Katrina, the Vietnamese-American community had been a strong economic presence in New Orleans for almost twenty-five years. Concentrated in the fishing and shrimp industries, their small businesses provided essential goods and services to their own neighborhoods as well as supporting a lucrative export industry. But the destruction of Katrina left most of these businesses in shambles.
SFS works with clients to tailor the loan and financial packages to best meet their individual needs, a service that distinguishes all SFS lending. SFS is partnering with the Loyola University Small Business Development Center and the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation to identify potential loan recipients.
The Restaurant Recovery Initiative
With the Share our Strength Foundation and Deutsche Bank, SFS provides comprehensive aid to these businesses that were once a thriving part of the local economy and that are now languishing
In July, we launched this initiative and are currently in the process of identifying a group of 15 small, mostly African American owned-restaurants, with whom we will develop recovery plans of combined financial and technical assistance. We will also work with the broader restaurant community to develop restaurant worker recruitment housing and retention strategies.
As a part of this initiative, we are working with The Loyola University Small Business Development Center to help Jazzy Po Boys, offering them technical assistance as well as a low-interest rate loan to replace damaged equipment and furniture, make leasehold improvements, restructure and refinance portions of outstanding debt, and manage working capital needs. The Loyola/SFS partnership is also working with Off Da Hook Seafood, issuing them a $60,000 loan to purchase the restaurant equipment and meet cash flow needs.
As this initiative moves forward, we will be offering restaurants an online planning tool to help them make efficient business decisions, such as determining the best hours to remain open so as to maximize profits. We are also exploring housing strategies in New Orleans in partnership with several local housing development groups, an issue that is now a primary obstacle to the recruitment and retention of restaurant workers.
Online Resource Guide
In June, SFS issued an online guide, www.nolabusinessresourceguide.org, as a comprehensive resource for small businesses in New Orleans that complements SFS's financial and technical assistance.
SFS worked with the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce and Xavier University of Louisiana to produce the guide, which enables owners to access resources from nonprofits as well as local, state, and federal government agencies. The guide is updated regularly to provide businesses with the most current information available.
For more information, please contact Robin Barnes at (504) 520-5727 or rbarnes@seedco.org.
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