Working Solutions staff recently joined African-American business owners for a two-day retreat organized by EVOLVE. The collective heard from inspiring presenters, did a great deal of networking, and discussed health and wellbeing—an integral part of the retreat offering. Working Solutions left the retreat with more leads than any other event in the history of the organization! Thank you to the EVOLVE team for this opportunity.

Working Solutions is pleased to announce that we have a new five-year Strategic Plan! We are excited about our plans for the future and look forward to serving many more local entrepreneurs in the coming years. You can read the full Strategic Plan here.

Working Solutions is thrilled to be featured in the May/June issue of the Oakland Business Review (OBR)! Thank you to the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce for this opportunity to highlight our work—providing affordable capital, customized business consulting, and community connections to start-up and early-stage businesses in the East Bay and across the Bay Area. You can read this issue of OBR here.

Thank you to all of the supporters, volunteers, clients, and other members of our small business community who joined us at the 2019 Invest in Dreams Breakfast! Check out the great photos and inspiring videos from the event here.

Working Solutions staff had a great time participating in Small Business Week activities across the Bay Area this year, including events in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Thanks to all of the many partners and sponsors who made these events possible. We also want to give particular thanks to the San Francisco Small Business Week team for featuring both Working Solutions and the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund on their blog!

Wells Fargo has been a strong and consistent partner to Working Solutions since the inception of our program. In 2005, it was a $500,000 loan from Wells Fargo that seeded our microlending work, and we have since partnered together on several strategic initiatives, including the Economic Opportunity Grant in the North Bay and the Diverse Community Capital program in the East Bay.

In partnership with Credit Builders Alliance (CBA), Working Solutions and like-minded organizations are supporting Senate Bill 619, which is being introduced by State Senator Ben Hueso. Senate Bill 619 would establish a 3-year, opt-in rent reporting pilot program in declared "Promise Zone" cities throughout the State of California.

Our Invest in Dreams Breakfast is coming up on Thursday, May 9 during Small Business Week. We would love your help spreading the word!

On February 28, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in 26 counties, including Sonoma County, due to flooding and damage from rain storms that swept across California. To support the recovery of our North Bay communities, Working Solutions is providing Emergency Relief Loans for affected businesses and a 3-month forbearance opportunity to current borrowers affected by the floods.

With 20 years behind us, we are ready to meet the future head on. Our goal is to continue to focus on the hardest to reach, the smallest, earliest ventures, and to make sure we deploy $30 million in microloans and serve 1,000 local businesses by 2021 … and to keep going. 

"Small loans make a big difference for women and minorities” proclaims the San Francisco Chronicle in an article on the front page of the Sunday Business Report published on January 13, 2019. The article highlights how Working Solutions has supported Bay Area small businesses.

Opportunity Zones are a hot topic in many circles with investors, real estate developers, and community development groups. The Bay Area, and Oakland specifically, have been designated as very high potential Opportunity Zones.

Our partnership with Nova Credit gives us great pride, because it helps us serve a large segment of communities of color – recent immigrants.

We are very excited to roll out a deepened partnership with Bank of the West in January 2019.

A recent trending conversation on KQED’s The Forum radio program highlighted the issue of displacement in San Francisco. The program discusses SF Mayor London Breed’s first policy proposal to address the issue of empty storefronts – the first for a city, and a model for other Bay Area cities.

On November 29th, Working Solutions joined the Responsible Business Lending Coalition in support of SB1235. The Coalition met with Commissioner Jan Lynn Owen and her staff in Sacramento at the Department of Business Oversight which is in charge of implementing the recently signed legislation.

Working Solutions was honored by the Napa Valley Community Foundation in October as a key “Second Responder” to last year’s Napa fires.

Working Solutions organized a small but impactful event for local San Francisco bookstores to celebrate a partnership with San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the San Francisco SBDC.

Working Solutions participated in the West Contra Costa Economic Summit in Richmond through an event organized by the East Bay Economic Development Alliance.

Working Solutions and several key members of CAMEO, our state trade association, supported the passage of the first small business truth-in-lending law in the country.