Melissa Bird\u2019s first business venture held retreats where women and women of color could heal from trauma. <\/p>\n
She\u2019d like to carry that positive change into a second business, Mermaid\u2019s Garden, an aquaculture farm retreat she founded with her husband in 2020 with the mission to connect clients back to quality food and land, a connection she finds significant as a Native woman. But it\u2019s been difficult to get it off the ground, Bird said \u2014 or to find grounds for her business at all. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t been able to get property yet,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking for property for five years, and one of the issues we\u2019re running into is that funding for something like this is really complicated and difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now, Bird says, she\u2019s lost funding and bookkeeping assistance that had helped manage the process.<\/p>\n
A Native and disabled veteran-owned company, Mermaid\u2019s Garden is one of many small businesses across Oregon and the nation that received aid through the federal Minority Business Development Agency. The agency worked through local business development organizations like the Northwest Native Chamber.<\/p>\n
But the $300,000 in MBDA grant funding the Northwest Native Chamber expected this summer, which paid for its work with Bird and other clients, never came \u2014 nor any notice the chamber had lost its funding.<\/p>\n
Alexis D\u2019Amato, director of government affairs at Small Business Majority, a national organization that supports small businesses, said many such organizations have seen their federal backing disappear. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now the MBDA is pretty much hamstrung,\u201d D\u2019Amato said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that they\u2019re really doing right now. All of the staff that I knew are either gone out of the government service or have moved to another role in commerce.\u201d <\/p>\n
The loss of funds for the nation\u2019s only agency solely serving the growth of minority-owned businesses<\/a> is one of many to fall under the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that President Donald Trump had ordered removed from the government<\/a> earlier this year. <\/p>\n Business Impact Northwest, a community development financial institution, or CDFI, works with 3,500 business owners, including women-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned businesses. It lost all of its $450,000 MBDA grant in June. The non-profit operates with a $8.5 million budget \u2014 with about $2.4 million of those funds coming from the federal government. <\/p>\n Its CEO, Joe Sky-Tucker, said that while the organization is still operating services in Oregon, it had to cut its programs for minority-owned businesses, including technical assistance, business idea coaching and strategic planning support. <\/p>\n \u201cClients are going to get less access,\u201d Sky-Tucker said. \u201cThe grants paid for our staff time, but the outreach that we had to do to different organizations to find our clients to be out in the community is really what it\u2019s paying for. In general, non-profits are going to be pretty devastated by these federal funding cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n The Northwest Native Chamber, which supports Native-owned businesses like Bird\u2019s, had to drop its program that helped small businesses grow. <\/p>\n James Parker, the CEO of the Northwest Native Chamber, said MBDA-funded economic development can be a lifeline for low-income communities to develop savings and self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen communities that are often underserved and economically distressed areas lack the opportunity to create their own resilience and support systems through entrepreneurship,\u201d Parker said, \u201cwhat we do is see our communities unfortunately forced towards social services, which has a much higher cost per person than supporting entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minority Business Development Agency last year said it had created and retained nearly 23,000 jobs nationwide. <\/p>\n Some of the business owners Northwest Native Chamber serves, like Adam Becenti and Adrienne Fainman, are left wondering where they can turn now for support. <\/p>\n Becenti had just started a consulting firm, Black Streak Consulting, this year after abruptly being fired late last year as a tribal relations manager for the city of Portland<\/a>. He said he was in the early stages of working with Northwest Native Chamber to build the business and had been finalizing a logo design when he learned the chamber could not continue its help. <\/p>\n \u201cI understood,\u201d said Becenti, who ended up paying $800 out of pocket for the work. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t too bad \u2026 but still, that was $800 that I could have used for other things.\u201d <\/p>\n Becenti said he started his business out of a desire to address systemic issues in tribal affairs departments or offices. As a consultant, he said, he can use his own experiences to build tribal liaison positions to better serve Native communities. <\/p>\n Without financial help from Northwest Native Chamber, Becenti is now looking elsewhere for resources to help launch his consulting firm \u2014 but their offerings, mentorship and marketing support pale in comparison to the chamber, he said. <\/p>\n Fainman, CEO of CedarStone, a mass-timber design-build firm based in Eugene, won a $100,000 grant through the state\u2019s Economic Equity Investment Program, to help the business grow. <\/p>\n She had looked to Northwest Native Chamber for help with legal and accounting services to handle the new pressures that came with the influx of funds. She\u2019s uncertain if she\u2019ll be able to get that help now. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to look elsewhere,\u201d Fainman said. \u201cIt\u2019s really unique getting support from the chamber because they are a Native-run organization, so the people we talk to understand where we\u2019re coming from. They understand what our world view is in a way that helps them be able to advise us and coach us through doing business in a way that makes sense.\u201d <\/p>\n Sky-Tucker warned that the loss of the MBDA grant is only the beginning of budget cuts. President Donald Trump in May proposed a $191 million cut<\/a> to the federal CDFI program. Business Impact Northwest is beginning to work through its contingency plans for up to $2.2 million in losses. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is a pretty massive threat to these programs,\u201d Sky-Tucker said. \u201cAnd if they\u2019re willing to come after small business support, which is a very broadly supported on both sides of the aisle issue, what else will they come for?\u201d<\/p>\n For Bird and her business, the next steps are to scale back the bigger vision she had for Mermaid\u2019s Garden, which was to create a retreat space with a fish farm for clients. Instead, she plans to farm and sell fish at a farm stand to show investors her business plan is feasible. <\/p>\n \u201cThat won\u2019t cost as much money as it will to do a full scale operation,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to take bite-sized pieces, one step at a time.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Bird\u2019s first business venture held retreats where women and women of color could heal from trauma. 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