Community Investment Collaborative

Cic provides business education, mentoring and networking opportunities to under-resourced entrepreneurs. The signature education program is a 16 wee entrepreneur workshop that combines case studies, discussion and applied learning. A financial management program helps entrepreneurs develop the bookkeeping, record keeping, and financial analysis skills and habits to better manage their business. Additional programs include mentoring, business office hours, small business circles and our Collaborative co-working space. In 2022, 209 clients participated in cic programs. To date: there are 514 graduates of our 16 week workshop, 127 mentor matches, and 51 financial management program participants. To date: those clients have started 153 new businesses, sustained 252 existing businesses and created 317.5 new full time equivalent jobs.

The cvsbdc is housed at cic with support from the small business administration, state and local governments along with private support. It provides free one on one business advising and training workshops. In 2022, cvsbdc provided 571 clients with 5190 hours of business advising. Additionally, 1036 individuals participated in 75 training events. Cvsbdc clients created 24 new businesses, accessing 17.3 million in new capital formation and created 207 new jobs.

Cic has two core financing programs including a microloan program that provides loans up to 50,000, a micro grants program that helps under- resourced entrepreneurs test their product or services. In 2022, 36 businesses received 471,380 in loans and 21,938 in microgrants. Cic's lifetime total lending to date includes 2,503,492 in loans. Additionally, cic partners with local governments and other entities to manage grant programs that provide access to capital to businesses in the region. In 2022, we partnered with 2 local governments to provide capital for businesses impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. 101 businesses received 450,362 in grants through these partnerships. Cic also piloted a new program to provide loan servicing to another mission driven lender, bridging Virginia based out of richmond, va. cic leverages its capacity as lender to support bridging Virginia by managing its loan payments, helping bridging Virginia manage its first 178,500 in direct lending to under-resourced entrepreneurs in the richmond area.

Networking: building strong entrepreneurial networks is an underpinning of cic culture. Cic partners with local organizations to offering networking events ranging from market access opportunities at block parties and Community fairs to education opportunities through business expos and pitch nights. Partnering organizations include: tom tom founders festival, whole foods market, charlottesville business innovation council, ilab at darden, central Virginia small business development center. Mentoring and coaching: mentors drawn from local business and business counseling communities meet regularly with cic entrepreneurs to provide ongoing guidance and advisory support. The financial management program provides financial coaching in business bookkeeping and record keeping. To date: 121 mentor matches; 30 financial management program participants. Covid-19 business grants: cic partnered with 11 municipalities to provide access to capital in the form of business grants funded by the federal cares act. As a result, 599 businesses and additional 106 nonprofit entities received 11,192,341 in grants to support their operations in a 6 month period.