Commercial Corridor Develoment
Our Commercial Corridor Development work aims to help build healthier, more resilient businesses that can lead to Wealth Building for business owners in commercial corridors that have traditionally had low wealth as part of an anti-displacement strategy.
Business Organizing/Advisory Committees
Organizing businesses on a commercial corridor is critical to ensure that the success of a corridor equals the success of the businesses who are there today! This is why RAIL CDC is bringing together Corridor Advisory Committees for each corridor. If you are a business who is interested in participating in an advisory committee in the Distrito Latino de Mesa, Downtown Mesa, The Mesa Asian District, or Only on Apache District in Tempe,
SPONSORSHIPS: If you are interested in sponsoring one of the Corridor Advisory Committees
Equitable Business Technical Assistance Program
RAIL CDC’s Equitable Small Business Technical Assistance Program (EBTAP) provides free one-on-one consulting and technical assistance services to business owners and entrepreneurs in our commercial corridors, focusing on immigrant-, women- and minority-owned businesses. Our program was set up before the pandemic, so when things hit the fan, we were already prepared to take action. From the beginning, our program has been set up with consultants that are experts in their field. Instead of hiring a “Jack of all trades” staff person, we contract with expert consultants in marketing, financial literacy, loan packaging, bookkeeping, business organizational development, and much more. After we do a business assessment with a business, these consultants are then given a work plan to execute specific tasks identified through the assessment. These services also include industry-specific workshops, training, and focus groups.
Restaurant Academy
RAIL CDC and the Arizona Asian Chamber of Commerce present the Restaurant Academy. This is a 10-week program to help add to the business fundamentals of your restaurant or food business. There are limited spaces, so please apply now to be a part of the next cohort. If you are selected, the academy will be FREE, and you will participate in 5 workshops.
You will have the opportunity to work with expert consultants who will work with you one on one to help with marketing, financial systems, food costs, HR (Employees), leadership training, and more.
COVID-19 Relief
Since the beginning of the pandemic RAIL CDC has worked with more than 400 businesses (lease agreement review, pricing, HR practices, operation, etc) with a hyper-focus on preparation for and accessing capital. This pandemic has shined a bright light on the inequities that exist for business owners of color, especially those that are located in low-moderate income census tracts. This is the population that RAIL CDC focuses on and works with. In 2020 & 2021 RAIL CDC has helped businesses on our corridors apply for and receive more than $7M in grants, PPP forgivable loans, and EIDL loans. 96% of those businesses are BIPOC or woman-owned and all are in LMI census tracts.
Consultants of Color Collective
RAIL CDC contracts with Business Technical Assistance Consultants to deliver services to microbusinesses in our place-based Equitable Business Technical Assistance Program. Through our program, we realized the need to build capacity amongst BIPOC business consultants who are subject matter experts. In accordance with RAIL CDC’s mission and vision, this program is intended to build capacity, power, and professionalism amongst our consultant line-up and develop others and build a more equitable technical assistance ecosystem of BIPOC Business Consultants.
The next cohort will begin in September 2022, with a cap of 15 consultants going through the program.
If you are interested in the program, please apply now!
SPONSORSHIPS: For sponsorship opportunities, please inquire here.
Loan Prep + Lending
Although RAIL CDC is not a lender, we offer our small businesses the opportunity to prepare to access capital. Whether through a Kiva Loan or by helping a business prepare a loan package for one of our partner banks and financial institutions to review. RAIL CDC is a Kiva Trustee and through our partnership with LISC Phoenix, every Kiva loan that we "Endorse" is matched dollar for dollar by LISC.
RAIL CDC has established a Loan Committee for our financial institutional partners. If you are a lender and are interested in participating and having access to review a loan request from one of our businesses.
Our Sponsors.
