Wells Fargo - A Community Friend And Economic Development Partner Across South Carolina

Charleston SC., Wells Fargo is helping to fund local organizations in many ways. According to Wells Fargo Banking Director, Justin Hawkins there are four primary ways the bank is assisting local individuals and organizations: housing affordability, small business growth, environmental sustainability and financial health.
Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund provides grants to non-profit organizations that support small businesses facing COVID-19 challenges, especially those that work with minority-owned small businesses. According to Hawkins, who has been with the bank for over 19-years, during the pandemic Wells Fargo assisted 152,000 small businesses to maintain 255,000 jobs with the Open for Business Fund . 80% of funding went to Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, women, and other diverse small business owners. And 1.7 million small business employees were allowed to go back to work through Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending. “Instead of keeping over $420 million of PPP loan fees, we contributed that money to our Open for Business Fund and used it to fund local organizations so that they could sustain their business and keep their workforce.” said Hawkins.
Wells Fargo’s Diverse Community Capital(DCC) program is another way the bank demonstrate its commitment to helping small businesses start, stabilize and grow. The program originally focused on distributing $75 million in capital to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that serve diverse small businesses. While the original $75 million commitment was met in 2018, Wells Fargo committed an additional $100 million in grant capital, to continue and expand the program through 2020. DCC funds are intended to be utilized by CDFIs to lend to diverse small business owners, support initiatives that increase access to capital and resources (such as technical assistance, marketing, outreach), and help more diverse small business owners get the coaching and education resources they need.

According to Hawkins, because of the SC Community Loan Fund, more diverse-owned small businesses in the state were provided the capital, technical assistance and other resources they needed to help make their businesses stronger. The funding allows Wells Fargo to deploy more capital and spearhead innovative technical assistance programs targeted to minority-owned small businesses. By financing community-based businesses including small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations and affordable housing, CDFIs spark job growth and retention in communities. Wells Fargo has distributed more than $55 million to 56 CDFIs since the launch of the DCC program. In 2021, Wells Fargo issued its first sustainability bond, named the Inclusive Communities and Climate Bond, which raised $1 billion in capital aimed toward projects that support housing affordability, socioeconomic advancement and empowerment, and renewable energy. Hawkins believes that Wells Fargo is making a real impact through action.