Small Business Support
Programs & Services
SF New Deal provides supportive services and financial opportunities for small businesses in San Francisco. To date, we have disbursed over $35.5M to support 661 small businesses in San Francisco. As our organization grows, we continue to launch innovative programs that address the pressing needs of small businesses across our city.
Learn more about our current Small Business Support Programs & Services below.
Zero Waste Pilot Program
After self funding two small scale pilots to limit the amount of single use takeout containers ending up in the waste stream through our feeding programs, we received a grant from SF Department of the Environment to expand these efforts and support more restaurants transitioning to reusable containers. This program is a public private partnership with SFE and Dispatch Goods. Our goal for this program is to have supported 20 restaurants in making the switch to using reusable containers instead of single use disposables by the end of the pilot in June 2023.
Learn more here.
Shared Spaces
In partnership with the City of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), SF New Deal is working to support small businesses to bring their structures into compliance and engage with artists to activate Shared Spaces.
Learn more here.
Consulting Services
SF New Deal offers community engagement and consulting services for a variety of organizations and companies. Consulting services include:
Fiscal sponsorship
Community engagement for impact (corporate giving, coalition building, strategic partnerships)
Food access assessments
501(c)3 set up services
Learn more here.
Past Small Business Support Programs & Services
Small Business Debt Relief Grant Program
In 2021 we disbursed $1,002,500 in $2,500 micro grants to 401 small businesses in all eleven districts of San Francisco. This program grew our community of small businesses and helped us support businesses beyond just restaurants.
Learn more about the Small Business Debt Relief Grant recipients here.
Spanish/English Language Pilot Program
Many workers in the hospitality and small businesses industry have limited English language proficiency, and likewise, many owners and managers are monolingual English speakers with limited ability in languages spoken among their team. Launched in November 2021, In its first pilot iteration, this program aims to improve English language skills for non-English speaking workers and Spanish language skills for non-Spanish speaking workers. Our assumption is that this will provide increase opportunities for workplace advancement in addition to strengthening internal team culture and communication. This program will continue in 2022.
Small Business Management Training
Our Small Business Management Training launched in 2021 as a pilot program to help small business middle managers with professional development training. The first cohort met weekly on Zoom to help managers develop their team building skills and improve team culture at a time when employee retention and staff shortages were particularly challenging. This program will continue in 2022.