Christopher Gil
Senior Content Marketing Manager
Mission Economic Development Agency
(415) 282-3334 ext. 152
cgil@medasf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 8, 2017
SBA Awards $150,000 PRIME Grant to MEDA
Funds finance training and technical assistance to emerging entrepreneurs
San Francisco, Calif. — The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) has been awarded a $150,000 Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs (PRIME) grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). MEDA is one of 34 community-based organizations receiving such grants, totaling $5 million combined. All recipient agencies provide assistance to underresourced entrepreneurs needing access to capital to establish and expand their small businesses.
This year’s recipients come from 24 states and the District of Columbia. The grants range from $55,000 to $250,000, and typically require at least 50 percent in matching funds or in-kind contributions. In total, 147 organizations applied for PRIME awards for 2017.
“One of my goals as Administrator is to revitalize the agency and raise its profile, and in turn, revitalize a spirit of entrepreneurship in America,” said Administrator Linda McMahon. “Our aim at the SBA is to encourage entrepreneurship that helps build the confidence, skills and resources that entrepreneurs need to start or grow businesses, to invest in their communities, to create jobs, and to grow our economy. I am proud to be part of an agency that provides assistance and support to organizations that help emerging entrepreneurs who lack sufficient training and education to gain access to capital to establish and expand their small businesses.”
MEDA Business Program Manager Edwin Rodriguez said of the grant, “MEDA is positioned to use this new funding to best help the small businesses along the Mission Street commercial corridor of San Francisco. With rising rents in the neighborhood, these businesses need such support to not just survive, but thrive.”
The SBA placed special emphasis in this year’s competition on projects that will offer training and technical assistance to strengthen cooperative forms of business, particularly those that service economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs. Six organizations received funding to specifically target cooperative small businesses.
This year’s awards also emphasized organizations participating in the SBA’s Community Advantage Program. This program provides mission-oriented, nonprofit lenders access to the SBA’s 7(a) loan guarantees to help small businesses that have outgrown microlending, but are not able to access more traditional financing including funding from SBA commercial lending partners. Eight Community Advantage Lenders were selected for PRIME awards.
PRIME was created by Congress as part of the Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs Act of 1999. Grant funds will be made available on Sept. 30, 2017, and the project period for each grant is one year.
For more information on the SBA’s PRIME grants and for a list of this year’s grantees, go online.
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About Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
Rooted in the Mission and focused on San Francisco, MEDA’s mission is to strengthen low- and moderate-income Latino families by promoting economic equity and social justice through asset building and community development. medasf.org
About the U.S Small Business Administration (SBA)
The SBA was created in 1953 and since Jan. 13, 2012 has served as a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. sba.gov
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