Mercy Corps Northwest – Pivoting Away From Client Services in the Pacific Northwest
For over two decades, Mercy Corps Northwest has had the privilege to offer entrepreneurial support to communities across the Pacific Northwest. We proudly served as an Oregon IDA grant provider, and as home to Oregon Women’s Business Center and a microloan program in partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA). We also hosted one of Oregon’s most effective prison entrepreneurship programs that reduced participant recidivism rates by nearly 50 percent, and built capacity at nonprofits across Oregon and Washington as host of a regional AmeriCorps VISTA program.
The impact of our work has accumulated to $16.5 million dollars in grants and loans disbursed to entrepreneurs, more than 130,000 hours of small business education, and over twelve-thousand clients receiving services from Mercy Corps Northwest since 1998. It has been an honor to work within this vibrant community.
In tandem with the launch of our new 10-year Pathway to Possibility strategy, we have taken time to reflect on our impact as an organization. As part of this, we are announcing that we will be reviewing our approach to programming in the Pacific Northwest and are beginning to wind down all direct-to-client programs. In June 2024 any remaining Mercy Corps Northwest initiatives will move under the greater Mercy Corps organization and name.
We aim to be intentional in this process by ensuring that our participants and partners are included in our next steps. As we move to the end of 2023, we will transition our core business development services programs to other agencies and plan to continue all current projects through their completion date.
To start, we will hand off the following programs on the following dates…
The Oregon Women’s Business Center hosted at Mercy Corps Northwest will transition to a new home in the fall of 2023. We are currently partnering with the Small Business Administration which will be leading the recruitment process.
The Oregon IDA Initiative program proctored from our organization will be transitioned to new providers under Neighborhood Partnerships’ leadership. We will continue to service IDA clients enrolled before 2023.
Our small business microloan program will accept its last open applications for funding up to $10,000 in October of 2023. Loans disbursed prior to this transition will continue with their terms and agreements for the duration of their lifespan. New clients beyond this timeframe will be referred to other local providers.
We will continue to provide small business services in Southern Washington through 2024.
It has been an honor to work with each of our clients over the many decades. Every day our team is inspired by the creativity, drive and that embodies each entrepreneur and community advocate that has stepped foot through our doors. This news comes with mixed feelings and an aspiration to embody the same audacious drive you’ve shown us as we transition on to the next chapter.
For the latest updates on this announcement, please visit nw.mercycorps.org/mcnw-future
Sincerely,
Lynn Renken
Executive Director
Mercy Corps Northwest