Wells Fargo Expands Resources for Hope Enterprise Corporation with Investments Totaling $8.5 Million

A $3.5 million Open for Business Fund grant will help small businesses recover; a $5 million patient capital loan will provide financial services to underserved communities

JACKSON, MISS. – Dec. 14, 2021 – As communities face ongoing challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Wells Fargo announced $8.5 million in funding to support small businesses and advance economic recovery in the Delta and across the South. The company is providing flexible capital to Hope Enterprise Corporation (HOPE), a 501(c)(3) and a certified Community Development Financial Institution, through an Open for Business Fund grant, and a patient capital loan to help people in rural and economically distressed areas access flexible, low-cost loans and financial services.

HOPE received a $3.5 million Open for Business Fund grant earlier this year, and is using the funding to support a projected 200 small businesses and 2,000 jobs across the South, with a focus on businesses owned by people of color. Additionally, HOPE plans to use a $5 million patient capital loan as secondary capital for its credit union, providing access to low cost financial services in rural and underserved markets.

Based in Jackson, Mississippi, HOPE serves low-income households and people of color in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The region has rates of unbanked and underbanked households that are worse than the national average, according to a 2019 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) survey. Specifically, Mississippi was ranked as the number one most unbanked state.

“We are all well aware that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color throughout our nation and right here in our very own communities. Wells Fargo is proud to support an equitable recovery in the South through this partnership with HOPE Enterprise Corporation,” said Wells Fargo Senior Vice President and Community Relations Senior Consultant Paula Beck. “With these resources, we aim to support communities and small business owners to emerge from the pandemic stronger and more resilient.”

“Addressing racial disparities in the financial system in an increasingly diverse country is not only the right thing to do, it’s in the nation’s collective interest,” said HOPE CEO Bill Bynum. “Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund acknowledges the vital role that CDFIs with a demonstrated history of serving entrepreneurs of color play in stabilizing our economy, and positioning America’s emerging majority to prosper.”

Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund is a roughly $420 million small business recovery effort created to help entrepreneurs stay open, maintain jobs and grow. Through Oct. 31, the Open for Business Fund is estimated to have reached more than 150,000 small business owners and enabled them to maintain a projected 250,000 jobs. The company also offers a Small Business Resource Center where entrepreneurs can explore business planning, financing considerations, and practical advice. 

With the $5 million patient capital loan, Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment group, a leading national provider of patient capital to CDFIs for over 20 years, is pleased to expand on its existing New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) relationship with HOPE. In October 2018, Wells Fargo closed its first NMTC deal with HOPE to support the critically needed renovation and expansion of Vicksburg High School  in rural Mississippi – transforming the school into a state-of-the-art education facility and increasing access to economic opportunities for students. In September 2020, Wells Fargo closed its second NMTC deal with HOPE for Jones Valley Teaching Farm, an innovative, hands-on educational nonprofit that partners with Birmingham City Schools and revolutionizes the relationship children have with food and with learning.

Since 2014, Wells Fargo has contributed more than $10 million in grants to HOPE, including:

• $4.8 million in Diverse Community Capital (DCC) program grants;
• $5.15 million in NeighborhoodLIFT funds; and
• A $318,000 grant at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of emergency funding for CDFIs and is part of two consortia – Partners for Rural Transformation and Expanding Black Business Credit Initiative – that received large grants in 2020.