The Longmont Community Foundation is 70% of the way toward its goal for a second round of Strongmont Grant funding to be awarded to minority-owned businesses as they work to navigate the reopening process.
The first phase of the Strongmont Grant Fund awarded up to $10,000 each to 23 local businesses from a pool of $275,000.
The second phase has reached $70,000 of its $100,000 goal, said Eric Hozempa, executive director of the Longmont Community Foundation.
Hozempa said the larger pool of funds for Strongmont 1 was supplied mostly by the city of Longmont to quickly assist local businesses as the impacts of the novel coronavirus took their toll. Strongmont 2 funds are largely being donated by the community.
“The fact of the matter is that we can stand here until the end of time and hope to get $100,000 or we can actually put the money in the community. So it is more important that we get the money out into the community,” Hozempa said of the next round of grants slated to be awarded next month.
The Longmont Community Foundation has seen a decline in philanthropy across the board this year. Hozempa said he believes this is because people want to ensure their personal financial health in the midst of COVID-19 but he was still hoping Strongmont 2 would garner more support.
“I feel like it’s such a critical flashpoint right now in race relations. And I really thought that people would kind of vote with their pocketbooks on providing support to Strongmont 2 as a sense of ‘yes, we value these businesses in our community, we value the diversity we have in the community as far as the businesses. So we really want to preserve them,’” Hozempa said.
Donations are still being accepted for Strongmont 2.
The focus of Strongmont 2 funds being placed on businesses of color came about when the Longmont Community Foundation realized none of the 23 businesses awarded funds in the first round were minority owned.
In late June, Hozempa issued a letter apologizing for the oversight stating, “put simply, I'm guilty of hubris, and I apologize. I assumed we would have a simple, straightforward process that would just work ... but that was not the case. I did not recognize the inherent biases with the Strongmont grant process, and how that would affect who was selected.”
Hozempa has taken on the task of changing the way such funds are awarded. He began by diversifying the selection committee to include representatives from the Latino Chamber of Commerce, the city of Longmont and a culturally diverse selection of residents.
Ron Brambila, who serves on Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County board, said he joined the committee because he was upset by the “flawed and seemingly discriminatory process.”
“It is unfortunate that an afterthought action has to be taken. We are happy the businesses in our communities have an opportunity to access funds to stay open and continue contributing to the local economy. However, I also believe Latino businesses were competitive in Strongmont 1, but the disparate process prevented them from receiving any awards. Thus, the result of the funds set-aside that is Strongmont 2,” Brambila said.
He said he hopes his contributions to the Strongmont 2 selection committee will bring about fairness for future allocations by nonprofit organizations.
Shakeel Dalal, a material scientist and member of the Longmont Public Media board, also has been selected to serve on the Strongmont 2 committee. He said he is “excited to participate in helping to distribute the second round of Strongmont grants because unconscious bias prevented the first round from reflecting the breadth of Longmont's community and people. Fixing that in this case requires a targeted grant process.”
His enthusiasm for serving the community leaves him hopeful for a diversified process in the future.
“While I hope that we never again find ourselves in a situation quite like this, I am certain that lessons have been learned from the Strongmont program about how deliberately designing a process can result in equitable outcomes that are better for the whole community,” Dalal said.
The Longmont Community Foundation also created a new application process that is offered in both English and Spanish. Videos produced on business owners’ smartphones or tablets are accepted in lieu of written applications. Application instruction videos also are available in English and Spanish.
Just like with the Strongmont 1, business owners can ask for grants up to $10,000 to “cover near-term expenses in the areas of payroll, rent, mortgage, utilities or other essential operating costs,” according to the criteria stated in the Strongmont 2 application.
Applications will be accepted until Aug. 3.
