Wolf Administration announces first approvals of loans for the Diverse Business Financing Initiative

HARRISBURG, Pa.—The Wolf Administration’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) recently announced the first approvals of loans for the Diverse Business Financing Initiative, designed to empower minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, disabled-owned, and LGBT-owned businesses to grow and thrive. This initiative is in keeping with Governor Wolf’s Executive Order 2015-11, “Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities in Commonwealth Procurement and in Pennsylvania’s Economy.”
“Diversity, inclusion and small business opportunities are essential to ensuring Pennsylvanians have jobs and our economy is thriving,” Governor Wolf said. “All economic indicators right now point more and more toward the fact that strong economic growth is tied to the success of diverse businesses and I’m especially proud to see my executive order carried out by DCED and its local partners in such a way to make diversity and inclusion a local economic initiative.”
DCED solicited proposals from its local economic development partners throughout the state to determine how best to meet the goal of supporting diverse business owners in the various geographic regions of the commonwealth. The department determined that the best approach to deliver growth capital to small diverse businesses is to administer portions of revolving loan funds to local economic development organizations, which will then dedicate those funds solely for relending to small diverse businesses that they interact with every day.
“The Diverse Business Financing Initiative is about more than just being the right thing to do,” DCED Secretary Dennis Davin said. “It’s about giving Pennsylvania the competitive edge we need in an increasingly competitive marketplace by ensuring access to crucial resources for all business owners, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and disabled or veteran status.”