Business
LISC San Diego provides grants to community-based organizations that provide technical assistance to small businesses in disadvantaged communities. Currently we support the following organizations providing these services: City Heights CDC, International Rescue Committee, El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association, City Heights Business Association, Diamond Business Association, and Chicano Federation.
For the past decade, LISC San Diego has convened and providing HUD Section 4 capacity building funding to the City Heights Economic Development Collaborative (CHEDC). This collaborative works together to provide comprehensive technical assistance to BIPOC-owned small businesses and advance commercial corridor revitalization projects in City Heights.
Most recently, LISC worked with CHEDC to raise private capital and launch the City Heights Business Relief Fund, which provided grants and technical assistance to 58 businesses in City Heights that had been impacted by COVID-19 closures.
Additionally, LISC works with community partners to help small businesses access Kiva loans, which are crowd-sourced 0% interest loans for entrepreneurs that may not be able to borrow from traditional lenders. Business owners create a fundraising page online and encourage friends, family, and customers to become investors.
Kiva brings affordable loans to entrepreneurs that would otherwise not be able to borrow from traditional lenders
The Social Entrepreneurs for Economic Development (SEED) Program is a new initiative of the State of CA. LISC SD is partnering with the SD Refugee Communities Coalition to provide entrepreneurship training, technical assistance, and micro-grants for refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs.