On May 19, the SBA put out a News Release, #25–51 that mentions The Progress Fund.
Disappointingly, their statements about us were wrong, and rather than praise us for the small business lending we do throughout rural Pennsylvania and West Virginia, they used our good name to suggest a false narrative about our participation in the Community Advantage Program.
The only thing they got right in the press release about us was that we are part of the Program. We were one of the original six that were selected for the pilot program in April of 2011. Not in 2023 as erroneously stated in the press release.
In the press release, they’ve implied that we are to blame for a 7% default rate. The fact is, we never made a loan under the Program. Even though we were selected by the SBA in 2011 for the roll-out of their new nationwide small business loan program, we never used the Community Advantage Program. Instead, we preferred to use other more flexible funding for the lending we do. So, we are not part of their default problem because we never used a penny of the Program funds.
Maybe whoever it was at the SBA that wrote the press release misunderstood our name. What they got wrong is the use of the primary word “progress”; it’s not a woke word for us. We selected “Progress” way back in 1997 because of our intention to create economic progress for all people in the economically distressed rural areas of Appalachia. Since then, we have provided $104,406,286 in low interest loans to small businesses and helped them retain or create 6,235 jobs in the good old U.S.A.
Hopefully the SBA‘s mistake will not distract others from recognizing our important work to help small businesses create good paying jobs in rural America.
Sincerely,
David A. Kahley
President & CEO
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