Economic Development

Access to capital is a major challenge that continues to plague the small business community. Since 2008, small businesses have seen a dramatic decrease in their ability to obtain both working capital and growth capital, especially women and minority business owners. Women still receive only 4% of all commercial loan dollars. Since non-traditional lenders are an important source of dollars for many small businesses, we continue to advocate for access to nontraditional sources of capital. 

Some of our efforts in this area include:

• Working to maintain and expand funding for loan technical assistance.
• Promoting microbusiness development and success.
• Securing additional funding for federal small business lending and economic development programs.
• Developing policies to promote responsible business lending and access to capital.