A Statement from The Capital's Parent Company: We Want to Help Local Businesses Impacted by COVID-19

The team at Tiny , the parent company of The Capital and Capital Daily, is looking to help local small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown. Many otherwise healthy businesses have hit desperate cash crunches, and Tiny is looking help them make it through this period of uncertainty through four new initiatives.

1. We are providing $500-$2,500 interest free, unsecured loans to Victoria-based small businesses affected by the shutdown. If you know a small business owner who needs our help please send them to this form and we will be in touch shortly.We have already had over 140 submissions and are working through them as quickly as possible.
2. Tiny and other local tech companies are doing a "Double Your Donation" $350,000 matching program with the Victoria Foundation's Rapid Relief Fund. If you are looking for a way to donate, this is the most acute need in the city right now: with homeless shelters closed due to the lockdown, food banks are under extreme pressure. This is a great way to double your impact.
3. We've realized that in some situations, our small loans are insufficient. Some businesses need significantly more than a couple thousand dollars (in some cases $10,000-$20,000), which we can't afford to do alone. So, our idea was to buy large gift cards ($2,500-$20,000) then resell them to the community at a discount (10% off). The only rule would be that you would have to commit to not use them until 2 months after the shutdown ends (to give the businesses a bit of buffer time) and ideally use them over time vs. all at once (to help them preserve their cashflow). We've created a simple Google Form where you can specify which restaurants you'd want to buy discounted credits from, and how much you'd commit to buying as part of this program. If you have a favourite restaurant or cafe that you know you will frequent once the lockdown ends, and you have the means, then this is the best possible way to directly help them stay afloat.
4. With unemployment rising to an estimated 20-30%, there is a huge population of smart, talented people who are currently sitting at home feeling stressed, anxious, and bored. We would love to help get them back to work with jobs that can be done in this strange new world of work from home/low contact.We just whipped up a simple job board here, and would love it if you could post your Remote/Work From Home/Low Contact jobs here so we can help get everyone back to work.