Washington, D.C. (December 11, 2020) – The Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) today announced that with partner Morning Consult, the global data intelligence firm, it has been awarded the 2020 Citizenship Award by the Washington Business Journal. The honor recognizes the partnership between Wacif and Morning Consult, as one of three partnership honorees, on the launch of the Small Business Resilience Fund in June 2020, and its efforts to provide much needed capital to assist small businesses during the pandemic and unrest.
“We are honored to receive the 2020 Citizenship Award in partnership with Morning Consult during, what remains, a critical time for needed resources such as the Small Business Resilience Fund,” said Wacif CEO Harold Pettigrew. “As the Greater Washington region enters this tough stretch of recovery, we look to our corporate partners to continue to provide support through a shared commitment for small businesses as the cornerstone of our communities.”
The Citizenship Award, one of the Washington Business Journal’s annual Corporate Philanthropy Awards, honors forward-looking, local business and nonprofit collaborations. Morning Consult and Wacif joined together to launch the Small Business Resilience Fund in June to support small business owners in underserved neighborhoods repair, rebuild, and restart as the pandemic and protests spread through the city. Morning Consult initially contributed $30,000 to the fund – the same amount that the D.C.-based company launched with – and was able to leverage the donation to raise over $500,000 with over 530 donations from individuals and corporate donors (to date) to assist small businesses with critical necessities, including PPE purchasing and commercial rent support.
This timely partnership exemplifies Wacif’s comprehensive efforts in Greater Washington to provide small businesses with needed advisory services to navigate uncertainty and disruption, and deploy over $9 million in capital through grants, debt relief, and loans by the end of 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 public health and economic crises.
For more information on the 2020 Citizenship Award, please visit our story in the Washington Business Journal. To support our work and donate to the Small Business Resilience Fund, please visit our donation page.
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About the Washington Area Community Investment Fund
The Washington Area Community Investment Fund, Inc. (Wacif) is one of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan’s area’s leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) focused on small business development. Wacif’s mission is to increase equity and economic opportunity in underserved communities in the Washington, D.C. area by investing knowledge, social, and financial capital in low-and-moderate-income entrepreneurs. To learn more about Wacif’s mission, visit www.wacif.org.
About Morning Consult
Morning Consult is a global data intelligence company delivering insights on what people think in real time. By surveying tens of thousands across the globe every single day, Morning Consult is unmatched in scale and speed: It determines the true measure of what people think and how their decisions impact business, politics and the economy. Industry leaders rely on Morning Consult’s proprietary technology and analysis for real-time, intelligent data to transform information into a competitive advantage.