Fairfield County’s Community Foundation + Honeycomb Credit

A Community Investing Pilot for Historically Underfunded Small Businesses in Fairfield County.

One of the tenets of The Community Foundation’s strategic plan, Fairfield County Forward, is to ensure all Fairfield County residents have equitable access to workforce, entrepreneurship, and employment skill-building opportunities to achieve and maintain financial self-sufficiency and build assets. 

Many Fairfield County small business owners experience barriers to obtaining credit or loans needed to make their businesses grow – this is particularly true for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) entrepreneurs who live in neighborhoods with lower to middle incomes.

In an effort to support these small business owners, FCCF has partnered with Honeycomb Credit, an innovative platform for eligible small businesses to borrow funds from their customers, community members, and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.

Our Commitment

FCCF has committed $200,000 to this community investing pilot program. Business owners with a capital need of $25,000 or more are encouraged to apply and benefit from an initial investment of $10,000 from the Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.

Learn How It Works

What is Honeycomb Credit?
Honeycomb Credit is a crowdfunding platform that offers small business owners a way to borrow money from their own customers, fans and supporters. It also provides regular people and investors that care about our community with an easy way to help out. Fairfield County’s Community Foundation is one of many groups working with Honeycomb to make sure BIPoC-owned and other historically underfunded businesses can access the money needed to grow.

Why is crowdfunding part of this model?
Crowdfunding is a great way for people with little or no credit history to show they have what it takes to grow and sustain a successful business. Getting support from the community not only raises the needed money, but it also helps market the business and build connections with potential partners, making the loan less risky for everyone involved.

Who can get a Honeycomb loan from the Community Foundation?
These funds are meant for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPoC) entrepreneurs from low-to-moderate-income communities* in Fairfield County.

How does an applicant get started?
Learn more about the loan process and schedule a chat with someone at Honeycomb by visiting: https://www.honeycombcredit.com/grow

How You Can Help

Want to support this Community Investing Pilot?
Share with BIPoC small business owners in your network! Pass on this email or share this link: fccfoundation.org/honeycomb

See that a local business has launched a Honeycomb loan campaign? Share their campaign on social media, in an email or by text. And, if you’re in a position to do so, invest $100 or more.

Need more information on Honeycomb?  
Download this guide for more on Honeycomb Credit and how loan crowdfunding works.

To connect directly with a member of the Honeycomb team, please contact Annamarie Galante at annamarie@honeycombcredit.com.

Learn more about Economic Opportunity work happening in Fairfield County here.

*To be considered a LMI community, the median household income of either the zip code or census tract must be below 80% (moderate) or 50% (low) of the median household income in Fairfield County as determined by Honeycomb based on PolicyMap’s 2020 Community Reinvestment Act eligibility map.