About Mercy Corps: Global Headquarters:

Mercy Corps Northwest

With MCNW's help, Columbia-born Alberto Jaimes expanded his business, Econo Upholstery & Glass, into a thriving enterprise. Grateful for MCNW's support, Jaimes gives back to the Portland community by mentoring aspiring Latino upholsterers and offering workshops to women. Photo: Daniel Root for Mercy Corps

Around the world and here at home, Mercy Corps helps people create better lives for themselves. At Mercy Corps Northwest (MCNW), located on the ground floor of the global headquarters building, our local work to help the underprivileged will gain a prominent place in our city. Our many small business services and programs will become more visible and accessible to low-income residents of the Pacific Northwest.

Supporting Small Businesses in our Community

Every day, thousands of people throughout Oregon and Washington struggle to improve their lives and provide for their families. Many of them also have creative, entrepreneurial ideas and the drive to succeed — the essential characteristics of successful small business owners. Yet when they set out to put their ideas into action, they often cannot access the resources or credit they need to build profitable businesses.

Since 1998, MCNW has offered entrepreneurs the tools and opportunities they need to start or expand a small business and to create a better life for themselves and their families. We help low-income individuals, including minorities, women, refugees, immigrants, prisoners, former prisoners and persons living with disabilities. More than 70 percent of MCNW clients are women, and approximately 50 percent consider themselves members of a minority.

Mercy Corps Northwest programs reduce unemployment, increase personal income, foster economic growth and raise local tax revenues.

MCNW’s new headquarters will be a nexus of activity for local entrepreneurs and small business owners, offering the following services.

• Small business loans from $500 to $50,000. Since 2001, MCNW has provided loan advisory assistance to more than 1,000 individuals and made over 160 loans, totaling $1.5 million, through its microloan program.
• Classes. Our classes teach fundamentals to new business owners: business plan development, marketing, cash flow, operations, financial literacy and credit.
• One-on-one mentoring. MCNW staff and volunteers assist clients with the marketing, accounting and legal challenges they face as small business owners.
• Matched savings accounts. For every $1 participants save toward starting a business or purchasing business assets, MCNW’s Asset Builder Individual Development Account program matches with $3 provided by the State of Oregon.
• Online tools and resources. One of our online programs, MicroMentor.org, pairs emerging entrepreneurs with experienced volunteer business mentors from across the country. Mercy Corps Northwest programs reduce unemployment, increase personal income, foster economic growth and raise local tax revenues.

In addition to these services, MCNW offers innovative programs for two specific minority groups. The New American Agriculture Project helps refugees and immigrants establish their own farms in the Portland metro area, assisting them with purchasing land and accessing local markets such as grocery stores, restaurants and farmers’ markets. Meanwhile, MCNW’s Coffee Creek Prison Project provides business development and financial literacy classes to women inmates at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. The project prepares these women to start a small business or to work for themselves after their release and teaches them social skills that will help them successfully reintegrate into their families and society. This project has the potential to change many more prisoners’ lives; currently MCNW is looking to replicate it in other correctional facilities, both within the state of Oregon and nationally.

Mercy Corps Northwest, our regional economic development program, offers services that help thousands of low-income small business owners in Oregon and Washington. Photo: THA Architecture

A New Opportunity

At MCNW, we match entrepreneurs’ dreams with the skills that can make them come true. We know that the success of every individual we help has a positive ripple effect throughout the Pacific Northwest. MCNW programs help break the cycle of poverty right here at home. They reduce unemployment, increase personal income, foster economic growth and raise local tax revenues.

Relocating MCNW to a prominent site in downtown Portland will boost its visibility and invite more people to benefit from its services and resources. In light of the recent economic downturn, MCNW’s role in the Pacific Northwest has become more important than ever.

For those who believe, as Mercy Corps does, that change must begin with each person, MCNW solidly connects the mission of Mercy Corps’ international work with the struggles and determination of its own neighbors. Here and abroad, we help engage people in revitalizing their own lives and communities. Change starts here.

If you would like more information about Mercy Corps Northwest or its new headquarters, please visit mercycorpsnw.org or email contact@mercycorpsnw.org.