Crowdfunding for Small Businesses during COVID-19

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This post the latest in Rural Resurrection’s ongoing series regarding COVID-19. Rural Resurrection will be posting regularly about the virus’ impact on rural governments and what local leaders can do. Follow us to stay informed of recent posts as we all work our way through this as “we are all in this together”.

Although large businesses will weather the COVID-19 storm, the pandemic will likely knock out many small businesses for good. Most small businesses simply do not have the financial wherewithal to stay afloat after several weeks of being closed. A recent survey by Main Street America showed that 34.07% of businesses surveyed could close their doors permanently if the current business disruption continued for 3-5 months. Based on their estimates, that would be 7.5 million businesses that would not open back up.

Patronicity

The crowdfunding gurus over at Patronicity are working to help out in their own way during these trying times. They’ve stepped up to the plate to help small businesses, stating:

“For non-matched crowdfunding campaigns that launch prior to May 15th, we are now waiving all fees. We also know that cash flow is important, so we’ll allow rolling funds distribution before the campaign ends.”

What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding (via Wikipedia) is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. In 2015, over US$34 billion was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.

Dive In

One of the more successful campaigns so far is Boston’s. Boston Main Streets Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund has raised over $100,000 so far. Sure, it is much easier for a community the size of Boston to raise that amount to help small businesses. However, that hasn’t stopped Blissful, Michigan. Kendalville, Indiana has made Patronicity’s front page. Milan, Michigan has even raised over $3,000 in a short time.

Sure, three grand isn’t that much, but many of these campaigns are just getting off the ground. Also, some of these small business owners will take what they can get. That may help with one more rent payment, or help keep the utilities on for another month.

But your community shouldn’t go up to the pool and test the waters. Dive right in. Start that crowdfunding campaign immediately. Then do your best to let everyone know about it. Use social media, word of mouth (over the phone), flyers, anything to get the word out. It’s only successful if people know about it.