From the Advocate

By Tara Lynn Gray 

December 2024

CalOSBA 2024 Year in Review

This is a good-bye to 2024…and a Let’s Hit It for 2025!

Here is the short[ish] list of what we accomplished at CalOSBA this year:

The Small Agricultural Business Drought & Flood Program

We completed this program designed to help small businesses across the food supply chain recover from “weather whiplash” and the adverse economic impacts of both severe drought in 2022 and severe winter storms in 2023.

• Drought 647 awards/$50,140,000
• Flood 365 awards/$20,050,000

Drought Recipients by Demographics:

• Low to Medium Income – 29.1%
• Rural – 94.3%
• Minority-Owned – 49.1%
• Women-Owned – 5.4%
• Veteran-Owned – 8.2%

Flood Applicants by Demographics:

• Low to Medium Income – 35.7%
• Rural – 90.3%
• Minority-Owned – 61.7%
• Women-Owned – 16.8%
• Veteran-Owned – 4.2%

Find complete program results here.

Accelerate CA

Named all 13 designees in the Accelerate CA statewide network of Inclusive Innovation Hubs and began deploying Innovation Grants to individual businesses incubated within the network. We’re aiming to get out $500,000 in individual grants of up to $100,000 per business by the end of the year!

Find the map of IHubs here.

CA RISE

In partnership with REDF, selected 61 Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs) through a competitive grant process to receive a one-time grant of between $100,000 – $500,000. An ESE exists to provide employment, training, and supportive services to people overcoming barriers to work.  There are about 200 ESEs in California, employing roughly 10,000 people each year. Nearly 75% of ESE employees are justice-impacted individuals; approximately 71% identify as Black or Hispanic. Research shows that workers with experience at an ESE have about 100% higher job retention and significantly higher total incomes. CA RISE is the first program in the county to provide direct support to these kinds of organizations.

Find out more here.

SCALE

Rebranded our network of small business support centers as SCALE to represent the true goals of all of our small business support partners.

New federal funding through the State Small Business Credit Initiative also allowed us to significantly expand the total number of partners in the network. As of October, we now fund and oversee a network of 137 small business support organizations including both federally funded partners like the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), non-profits and mission-based lenders.

Explore that network here.

In the six years we’ve been building this network, this is what our partners have achieved:

• 723,077 Small Businesses Helped
• 9,469 New Businesses Started
• 671,597 Jobs Created and Supported
• $2.6 Billion Lending Capital Approved
• $2.8 Billion New Equity Capital Raised
• 39,652 New Contracts Landed
• $3.6 Billion Gross Revenue Earned

To put that in terms of ROI:

For every $1 million the Newsom administration invested in building this ecosystem, CA got 66 new businesses.

For every $1,000, CA created 5 jobs.

For every $1, CA landed $18 in small business loans, $20 in new equity, and $25 in gross revenue.

Other Wins

We also completely revamped our website, added a chatbot so we can answer even more small business questions faster, and published the Outsmart Disaster Resiliency Roadmap workbook in both Spanish and English.

And coming in 2025…

PINNACLE

We recently announced winning $10 million in new funding from the U.S. Treasury through the competitive Small Business Opportunity Program. This funding will next year allow us to add new targeted services to our SCALE network.

Procurement & Innovation Capital Leadership for Entrepreneurs (PINNACLE) partners will work with businesses looking for what we’re calling “mature capital” and address two major market opportunities where California is uniquely positioned.

#1 State procurement contracts, most especially for the infrastructure construction in which the Governor has made a historic investment.

#2 High-growth, high-wage innovation sectors where California leads the nation

One aspect of the program will target businesses competing for state contracts and assist them with obtaining the bonding, insurance, and loan capital needed to secure contracts with local, state and federal jurisdictions as well as with private entities.

This funding will also help us better address the disparities and gaps in the venture capital dollars spent on diverse business founders in high-growth, high-wage innovation sectors by strengthening existing pathways and creating new ones.

Read the press release here.

Made in California

This is not a new program but we’re in the process of completely revamping it.  Did you know that California is the #1 state in manufacturing in the country? Lots of people express surprise about that, but it’s true both in terms of jobs and revenue and has been true for a long time. Made in California is a labeling program that will allow California manufacturers to show their California pride and take advantage of the fact that 60% of Americans will pay more for locally made products. We have a new logo on our soft-launch site and will be adding the Made in California application portal and product marketplace in 2025.

Look for the label here.

Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund

The Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund (PAEPF) recognizes that our community arts organizations are still struggling to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 shut-downs and that means not being able to hire and retain employees. To address these lingering pandemic after-effects, the PAEPF will support small nonprofit performing arts organizations (SNPAOs) by reimbursing a portion of their payroll costs.

Examples of SNPAOs include:

• Nonprofit theater companies
• Nonprofit dance companies
• Nonprofit choral groups
• Nonprofit presenting organizations
• Nonprofit performance venues
• Local arts councils (that actually present or produce performances)

Sign up for more information here.

Tara Lynn Gray was sworn in on April 26, 2021 as the fifth Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. She serves in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development as the voice for California’s 4.2 million small businesses. Closing opportunity gaps, the role of women and diverse business leaders, and expanding procurement opportunities are recurrent themes in her advocacy work.