“Dear PoPville,
For many years before 2020, my small DC-based retail company happily responded to requests from parents of children from local schools to donate to their school auctions / PTO and fundraiser. The support of our neighbors helped to make our business sustainable.
I recently received a donation request from the father of a public school in the Capitol Hill neighborhood with many resources and I want readers to know that these requests are probably very difficult to accommodate now for companies that have managed to sustain themselves this year.
It hurts to say that I can’t help but it is also very uncomfortable for me to have to explain the reasons.
We had to take a PPP loan from the government so that we could re-hire our employees last summer and we are still not sure that it will be forgiven. We were fortunate to obtain a SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan, which we hope will allow us to weather the ongoing storm, a 30-year commitment that the owners are personally committed to, even if the business fails. We are now praying for another round of PPP to avoid additional layoffs.
I am grateful for the financial support that my company has received in the past year, but I have an obligation to use it responsibly. Parents, please realize that if your school’s fundraising was a great “business development opportunity” that you didn’t need to ask for, I would line up to give you my money. I used to make donations because we had the means and it is a nice thing to do.
I look forward to giving back to the community as soon as we can, but it is not yet a good time for many small businesses in DC.
Sincerely,
One of your local retail store owners ”