In August of 2022, ICIC released the Bridging the Capital Access Gap: An Overview of the Small Business Finance Industry report. This report on the small business financing industry provided an overview of the financing options available to small businesses. It documented the ways in which racial and gender inequality in entrepreneurship and access to capital drives a widening divide in asset ownership and wealth in low-income communities and communities of color. The goal of the report was to support a more equitable future in which entrepreneurship is a tool for building generational wealth. Achieving this goal will require working to repair systems of exclusion in capital access and creating more broadly accessible information about navigating the various forms of financing that are suitable for different kinds of small businesses. 

ICIC, along with our partner LISC, recognized that there is a lack of high-quality, accessible training that business support networks can easily use to assist diverse small business owners in navigating the finance landscape. United by our commitment to elevating diverse entrepreneurs as a means of attaining economic equity we have created Bridging the Capital Access Gap, a free, publicly accessible curriculum and video series to help business support organizations navigate the capital landscape with and for their clients. 

The course is a five-chapter, 16-part video series exploring the small business lending landscape, the basics of loan underwriting and credit management, and the most effective strategies for seeking capital and cultivating long-term relationships with lenders. The video series is designed to build the capacity of business support organizations and their teams across a range of experience levels, including those who are unfamiliar with or new to the financing landscape as well as those who have worked in conventional lending. You can access the course here:

FULL REPORT

If you would like to access the course but do not feel comfortable providing your email information, please click here.