Too many people struggle to make ends meet because they’re denied opportunities to prosper. Over our 20-year history, Pacific Community Ventures has given people a fair shake and access to the things that make communities strong, like good jobs, affordable housing, and healthy food. Our unique combination of fair lending, free mentorship, skilled volunteerism, and pioneering impact measurement and management tools has impacted the lives of thousands of small business owners who have created and grown tens of thousands of jobs. We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars in quality-job-creating companies and influenced a growing pool of $34 billion in impact investment capital supporting progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
So how did we do in 2017?
- 2017 was another record-breaking year for our small business services. We supported 389 companies across all 50 states!
- Our team evaluated $30 billion in social impact investments across areas like climate solutions, affordable housing, gender equality, sustainable supply chains and healthy food access
- The small businesses we worked with created and grew 2,583 jobs
- Our companies had a staggering 21% job growth — surpassing national (1.8%) and state (1.1%) rates, and an average 18% revenue growth (vs 6.1% for comparable small businesses)
- Average wages at our small businesses were $30/hour (for full-time workers) and $15/hour (for part-time)
- We launched a first-of-its-kind report on common-sense policies to create quality job, and are preparing to launch Good Jobs, Good Business, a practical toolkit to help small business owners create jobs that boost the bottom line
- We also focused on equity in opportunity: 74% of the small business owners we work with are female, and 42% of the small business owners we work with are people of color
- PCV business advisors volunteered 2350 hours – that’s almost $500,000 worth of free advice and coaching
View our full impact report
Pacific Community Ventures is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen small businesses, strengthen communities, and create better livelihoods for working people. We believe that by investing in small businesses and making markets work for social good we can create stronger communities without poverty, where everyone has a fair shake and access to good jobs, affordable housing, and healthy food.