CBS 19 NEWS | Virginia riot scarred businesses get help from nonprofit fund

A nonprofit has earmarked $100,000 to help Virginia small businesses that have been impacted by looting and rioting.

The nonprofit Virginia 30 Day Fund announced that it will commit the money by shifting some of its money from the COVID-19 crisis to help small companies impacted by protests that have turned destructive.

Charlottesville’s own Pete Snyder started the fund in order to provide direct financial assistance because of the health crisis. Now other at-risk businesses need special help during these days of civil unrest.

“We knew we had to step in and help those small business owners who were first hit by COVID-19 and the mandatory shut down and they were barely hanging on and once they can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel, these violent riots happened in their community burning down minority communities. It’s wrong, so we wanted to step up,” he said.

Snyder says the funds do not need to be repaid, but if a business feels it has recovered sufficiently, it can “pay it forward” to another at-risk business. More than 300 businesses have been helped to date.