Downtown Raleigh Small Business Relief
Our beloved downtown Raleigh took a beating last night and it seems that small businesses got hit the hardest even though they've already been suffering from the pandemic and are still trying to recover from it. Small businesses have kept our economy going and they continuously help make downtown the place we all love. It's time for us to pay them back and help them through the challenges and through recovering from what happened last night.
We're a group of NCSU students and recent grads that wanted to help small businesses in our community while also relaying the message of the protests and educating people as much as possible about racial injustice in our country and what we all can do. We're organizing this GoFundMe to support small businesses that were affected yesterday.
Community members: please donate as much as you can and share this link with everyone you know.
Downtown small business owners: please fill out the following google form and we'll reach out to you once the funds start coming in.
This is set up for an initial $20,000 goal but please continue to donate after the goal is reached to help as many small businesses as possible. The plan is to start distributing the funds as early as the second week of June depending on how this GoFundMe performs. The funds will be distributed in a form of cash, checks, or Venmo payments to the business owners on a first come first serve basis (we'll monitor the google form for that). Please note that the amount distributed will be based on the type of damage that has occurred to the business, when the form was submitted, and the size of the business -smaller businesses will have more priority. Black and minority-owned businesses will also have priority. Please reach out if you have any questions.
This next part represents our own opinions, so please don't let it affect your willingness to donate: this fund in no way was set up to take away from the protests happening over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people, which are the number one priority. We’re proud of those who raised and continue to raise their voice for the black community. Also, please keep in mind that what happened last night after the protests and early this morning doesn't represent the victims of systematic racism and discrimination all around the country and doesn’t align with the goals of the protests organized. We can't let the actions of a few take away from the overwhelming peaceful calls for change and justice.
The issue of racism is not a left-or-right-winged conversation. It’s something that is ingrained within our society on all levels which means we all play a part in the issue and we all can also play a part in the change. Here are some funds, organizations, and resources that support the black community and specifically George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery (we’ll keep updating the list as we find others):
http://www.raleighapexnaacp.org/index.php
https://antiracismforbegginers.com/
bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
Stay safe and stay woke. #Justice4GeorgeFloyd #BLM