Our Origin Story
Small businesses have been hit hard by COVID-19 and need support to stay in operation. Recognizing that not all communities have equal information access, we worked with the Washington State Department of Commerce to create Funding Finder, a website that connects small businesses to funding opportunities, assistance organizations, and resources.
During development we prioritized the needs of Tribal small businesses, a community whose needs are often unmet. Funding Finder was designed alongside community representatives and business owners to offer an easy to use platform listing financial support to keep these businesses afloat and address information access.
Browse Funding & Assistance Options
Small businesses can view available funding and assistance. Funding are grants or loans. The assistance results consists of assistance orgs that have financial or technology experts.
Matching Form
Small businesses can fill it out and it will narrow down the funding and assistance organizations they match with. It helps them find the best matches for their business.
Library
The financial literacy library that has a plethora of external links to resources and information that will help users become financially literate and prepare them for applying to funding.
Commerce CMS
Commerce can edit the available assistance and funding with the Administrator Content Management System. This will keep our funding and information up to date and relevant long after we have finished with capstone.
Meet the Team
Give us a click for more info
Special Thanks to...
Sarah Lee
Project Sponsor
Sarah Lee
She is currently WA Dept. of Commerce's Director of Advanced Manufacturing. She has been leading the direction of this project. By connecting us with different government agencies and stakeholders, this project wouldn't have been possible without her support.
Ernie Rasmussen
Commerce Tribal Liaison & Small Business Owner
Ernie Rasmussen
Our biggest supporter. He has connected Funding Finder with many Native small business stakeholders and provided us opportunities to present our project at large conferences, like Native Edge Institute.
Sasha Anderson
Capstone Instructor and Project Advisor
Sasha Anderson
Sasha has provided our team with tremendous support and perspectives into how to work with government.
Tessa Campbell
Capstone Advisor
Tessa Campbell
She has provided us access to several small businesses and has given us valuable insights as both an instructor and a member of the Tulalip tribe.
And our other partners...
We came into this project with little knowledge of small business funding. But as we met with the following individuals from the Safe Start Grant group and various small businesses, we learned more. In total, we spent over 80 hours learning more about the topic area.
Sandra Archibald (Restart Partners) | Akhtar Badshah (Restart Partners) | Vu Do (Restart Partners) | Lisa Goodman (Restart Partners) | Genevieve Tremblay (Restart Partners) | Monica Simeon (Sister Sky) | Marina Turningrobe (Sister Sky) | Deejai Harris (Sister Sky)| Chuck DePew (NDC) | Jenefeness (SBDC) | Champ Barney (Champion Electric) | Robb Zerr (Commerce) | Darci Henderson (Tabor 100) | Katrina Upton (Dahotra Consulting) | Caleb McInvaille (OMWBE) | Sarah Stuart (Impact WA) | James Davis (Thurston EDC) | Jenefeness Tucker (WA SBDC) | Isabelle DeWolfe (Commerce) | Ryan Gobin (Ryan’s Rez-ipes) | Sarah Lindsley (NDC) | Margo Shiroyama (OneRedmond) |Miguel A Moreno (Impact WA)