Soul District Business Association

SDBA is passionate about our work within the Black/BIPOC small business community. We were among the visioning organizations that help created the Citys strategic Action plan in 2014, particularly within the goal of Foster wealth creation within communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. Which lead to the creation of the N/NE CDI Action Plan and Committee. For 2021, Our objectives as the N/NE Community Outreach Navigator were as follows* Identify business owners from within the Black/BIPOC community who were located or who wanted to locate within the IURCA.* Once identified, we provided and initial 1:1 or small group intake needs assessment with each business owner and created a profile for them within Prosper Portlands Outcome Tracker System. * Based upon our assessment, within the Outcome Tracker we were to make a referral to MESO to provide more in depth technical support, or to Prosper Portland loan and grants team if the business owner qualified for the TIFF property improvement of TIFF property loan programs. We were also to attend partnership meetings with Prosper and MESO key staff as well as attend some of the N/NE CDI Action Plan committee meetings but each organization was restructuring and staffing so those didnt happen as much as was planned. We are encouraged that it has sorted itself out, as the collective impact discussions are key to providing wrap around support and client success. Work products generated from our work included:* Enrolled 90 Black owned businesses into the Outcome Tracker.* Provided over 500 hours of internal technical support assisting them with securing Tiff grants and loans, private lines of credit, credit and legal counseling, identifying commercial space to lease in the IURCA, construction and zoning counseling, procuring equipment, bidding for contracts and more.* Created a pipeline of technical support partner for the client with partners like NAMC, Mercy Corp NW, Rivermark Credit Union and other small Black business owners* We helped those looking for spaces in the IURCA by connecting them with Culturally specific property management companies like PCRI and DR COMM Realty- one of the only Black owned commercial real estate firms in the State. In a recent survey conducted by the Soul District Business Association in partnership with Mercy Corp NW, of 50 small Black owned businesses located in N/E Portland, Oregon found that: *75% have gross sales less than $25,000 with 50- 100% of their income generated from their business revenue. *95 % of small, Black-owned businesses in N/NE Portland dont have any emergency savings to fall back on during a crisis *77.8% of these businesses applied for a variety of Covid-19 relief funding, but only 28% were successful. Of that 28 percent, 72% of the funding was less than $10,000. *At present, 95.7% of the businesses surveyed are still looking for grants and/or loans. The challenges in pursuing these financial resources are in knowing where & when these resources are being made available and how to successfully pull data together in an effective winning package in order to qualify for financial investment or a workforce contract. This is where the Soul District Business Associations (SDBA) network can make one of the most effective impacts. Our approach and methods to outreach and engagement will empower and grow Black/BIPOC Business revenue and work to seed emerging business into commercial spaces throughout the IURCA while also providing support to existing businesses in need of property improvements or looking to acquire property.

Fiscal Sponsorship for the Hill Block Project Working Group: Our organization serves as the Fiscal Sponsor for this association which as been tasked to assist with the development on specific vacant land with the intent to honor Portlands African American Community and support community housing and economics.