Michigan Women Forward Launches Small-business Relief Program

Michigan Women Forward, a Detroit-based women's advocacy organization, has a new relief program aimed at helping women entrepreneurs whose business has suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new relief program, done in financial partnership with Detroit-based New Economy Initiative's Small Business COVID-19 Loan Relief Program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Huntington Bank, officially launched April 1 for the organization's existing companies and will run through September.

MWF said it has secured loan payment relief for 80 percent of women entrepreneurs who hold Michigan Women Forward microloans in good standing. During this period, loan recipients from MWF and four other organizations will have their loan payments covered and other loan payments deferred for the next three months.

By May 1, MWF hopes to have secured enough loan and grant money to open its relief efforts up to the broader public, as opposed to just the 157 women-owned companies in its programs.

"We've built a robust ecosystem for women entrepreneurs throughout the state and right now that ecosystem is in danger of collapsing," said Carolyn Cassin, president and CEO of Michigan Women Forward.

Cassin said she feels women-owned businesses in Michigan have begun to take off in earnest in the past five years and that "the rug has been pulled out from under them."

Of those 157 loans MWF has granted, 90 percent of the businesses have been closed due to statewide mandates closing "nonessential" businesses.

The business consist heavily of food-service businesses, health and beauty and wellness enterprises, she said.

The goal now, according to Cassin, is to figure out how to reboot those businesses, whenever that time comes.

"The next thing is making sure they reopen," said Cassin. "That in a large part is predicated on helping them find some funding to be able to open again."

Alison Heeres, who runs Coriander Kitchen and Farm LLC in Detroit, said the MWF relief program makes for a major tool in the toolbox to surviving the economic crisis that COVID-19 has created.

"This is such a relief," Heeres said in a statement. "There are so many other things to figure out for us but this definitely lifts our spirits and is a big piece of the puzzle."

The emerging program from Michigan Women Forward stands yet another help for entrepreneurs hit hard by the stalled economy. The MWF loan relief program, Cassin said, could be used in conjunction with any number of other efforts, such as the federal Paycheck Protection Program, or myriad state regional and national loan programs that Crain's has previously reported on.

Cassin acknowledged that Southeast Michigan entrepreneurs she speaks to are definitely feeling the screws beginning to tighten, but added they're also feeling supported by much of the region's pilanthropic community.

"They don't feel isolated, they don't feel alone," said Cassin. "But do they feel like they've gotten kicked in the gut? Yes. We all do."