Our programs are also focused on equity and growing community wealth from the ground up. The fastest growing segments of small business owners across America are women and people of color – and they’re far more likely to be turned down for loans or struggle to find mentors. We’re proud to say that in 2017 73% of the businesses we funded were located in, or hiring from, low-income communities. 74% of the small businesses in our programs had a female owner, and 42% had a person of color as an owner. In 2017 that focus was rewarded with a sizeable investment from the Quality Jobs Fund established by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and administered The New World Foundation to serve business owners of color in the broader Bay Area, an investment from Citi Bank’s Community Progress Makers fund, and a funding partnership with JP Morgan Chase to become one of the founding nonprofits for their San Francisco Entrepreneurs of Color Fund.