Dear PoPville,
Before 2020, my DC-based small retail business happily required requests from parents of local schoolchildren to make donations to their school / PTO auctions and fundraisers for many years. The support of our neighbors helped make our business sustainable.
I recently received a donation request from the parent of a well-funded public school near Capitol Hill, and I want to let readers know that such requests are likely to be very difficult to answer at this point for companies that have been able to hold out this year.
It pains me to say I can’t help but also find it very uncomfortable to have to explain the reasons why.
We had to take out a PPP loan with the government to be able to re-hire our workers last summer and we are still not sure it will be forgiven. We were lucky enough to get an economic damage disaster loan from the SBA that we hope will enable us to weather the ongoing storm, owners of 30 years debt personally wait for even if the company fails. We now pray for another round of PPP to avoid additional layoffs.
I am grateful for the financial support my company has received over the past year, but I am committed to using it responsibly. Parents please realize that if your school fundraiser was such a great “business development opportunity” you wouldn’t have to ask, I would be in line to give you my money. I made the donations because we had the resources and it’s fun to do.
I’m looking forward to giving back to the community as soon as possible, but it’s still not a good time for many small businesses in DC.
Sincerely,
One of your local shop owners “