Our Commitment to Equity

Our mission: SF New Deal provides supportive services and financial opportunities for small businesses in San Francisco. 

We work to address both the symptoms and root causes of inequity by building pathways which connect local business owners, workers, community leaders, and neighbors in need, for the benefit of the entire city.

Addressing inequity at its core requires acknowledging the systematic and deliberate lack of resources which have been provided to Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, disabled, female identifying, immigrant, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and low income communities in San Francisco and across the United States. Systems of oppression are varied and intersectional in their existence, and we recognize the extent to which individuals and communities have been impacted in nuanced and compounding ways.  

Not all residents, small businesses and communities in San Francisco experience the same challenges. Overwhelmingly, the variations that exist are the direct result of systemic and structural oppression, injustice and disempowerment, which have created disparities with disproportionate impacts. 

At SF New Deal, we aspire to be equitable in our focus and distribution of support. For us, that means explicitly, and proportionately, providing financial opportunity to workers and businesses from impacted communities, and resources for residents who have historically and systemically been under-resourced. At its core, we believe that acting in pursuit of equity means centering individuals who are closest to harm. 

We operate several programs, each with its own context, and with a unique set of stakeholders, considerations, limitations and opportunities. Across our programs, we are guided by a vision of San Francisco which provides an abundance of support, dignity, respect, gratitude and appreciation for small businesses and neighbors in need that results from dismantling systems that cause disproportionate harm .

We’re committed to engaging in ongoing practices of accountability and recognize the responsibility we have to our stakeholders and within the community at large about how, where and why we’re spending dollars, operating programs, and providing support.