Finding HOPE in the Pandemic

In Memphis, Tennessee, self-employed insurance consultant Ronda Coleman Blair spent a week making unanswered calls to the large bank where she had accounts in need of a Small Business Administration Pay Check Protection Program (PPP) loan. Desperate for help, Blair finally drove to the nearest branch, where she found the lobby closed due to COVID. Blair begged for PPP assistance at the drive through window to no avail.

Blair was far from alone. Many minority business owners, particularly sole-proprietors, were unable to access federal aid, and many lacked established relationships with financial institutions altogether. These challenges contributed to the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black-owned businesses, which closed at nearly twice the rate as other U.S. small businesses over the past year.

HOPE, however, had developed a reputation for responding to the PPP needs of all businesses. “I’m sitting in my own bank’s drive-through and the employee working the window told me to go to Hope Credit Union because he’d heard HOPE would make it easy for me to apply,” Blair said. “That referral to HOPE turned out to be the best advice I received from my own bank.” Blair not only received a PPP loan from HOPE, she also helped her husband, an independent trucking contractor, and her father-in-law, the owner of Blair Concrete Construction, apply for PPP loans from HOPE. All three credit HOPE with helping them stay in business during the pandemic. “HOPE understood the plight of small business owners,” Blair said. “They were encouraging, positive, and insightful.”