Background Information

 

The USCM-Wells Fargo Small Business Initiative is a multi-element strategy to promote mayoral leadership that establishes, supports and strengthens small business and entrepreneur ecosystems in cities by equipping small business owners and entrepreneurs with the tools, training, and access to capital needed to succeed in today's economy.

 

The initiative is dually focused on mayoral engagement and leadership, as well as small business and entrepreneurship training through the expertise and networks of The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the USCM Workforce Development Council (WDC), and Wells Fargo. The centerpiece of the strategy is to bring awareness to existing tools, resources and data available to small businesses including data on philanthropic work with select "Open for Business" cities. (Wells Fargo established the Open for Business Fund in 2020 by voluntarily donating all gross processing fees from PPP loans made in 2020 to provide grants for CDFIs and other nonprofit organizations that provide capital and technical support to diverse-owned small businesses.)

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Comprised of mayor-appointed workforce board leaders from across the country, the WDC actively informs the focus of the nation's mayors in workforce and economic development. American Job Centers and workforce boards are uniquely situated across the country as a coordinated and connected local resource and system to support small business and entrepreneurship in cities. Accordingly, in its capacity as the body that develops workforce and economic development policy priorities for the nation's mayors, the WDC will lead the work of the Conference on this initiative supporting mayoral leadership in small business and entrepreneurship efforts.