While Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners is mostly known for providing energy and housing assistance to individuals in Spokane County, the community action agency also has helped 101 small businesses start and expand in 2023.

SNAP has a long history of supporting the foundation and expansion of small businesses in Spokane County through educational content and financial assistance.

Cassie Cleary, owner of Honest in Ivory LLC, says she connected with SNAP in 2017 as she was forming a business plan for a unique bridal gown retail outlet. 

After working with SNAP for months learning business skills, receiving mentoring, and honing the business plan for the bridal shop, Cleary says she was rejected nine times by larger banks and credit unions for a startup loan of $92,000.

While other lenders passed, SNAP loaned Cleary the capital to get the business off the ground. 

"My loan at the time was much larger than the typical ones that SNAP does, but I went through the process of applying through SNAP for a loan that year," Cleary says. "I worked with them for around nine months prior to the business opening. ... Not only did I receive financial assistance through them, but I also had the education component."

She adds, "I'm actually a speech therapist, so I didn't have a formal business education. This was incredibly beneficial to me to have access to in-person entrepreneurship courses that really set me up to start my business. I was even profitable the first year."

SNAP CEO Julie Honekamp says Honest in Ivory is an entrepreneurial success story and a great example of SNAP's impact in the small business community.

Since working with SNAP, Cleary has relocated and grown Honest in Ivory, in addition to opening a second, sister store, dubbed Dearly Consignment Bridal. In 2022, she purchased a storefront at 123 E. Sprague, in Spokane.

"I actually just paid off my loan at the beginning of this year, which is very exciting. I'm not currently in any need of funding, however, if I was, I immediately want to go through them to expand in the future."

Karen Campbell, director of financial stability at SNAP, says that Cleary "was 2023's Washington state Women's Business Center Client of the Year. And one of many success stories."

Other Spokane businesses that SNAP Financial Access has helped support include Cedar Coffee, located at 701 N. Monroe; Cochinito Taqueria LLC, at 10 N. Post; and Feast World Kitchen, at 1321 W. Third.

Cleary says she has recommend SNAP to new and existing entrepreneurs who want to move forward with their business ideas, including to a friend who opened a spa in Spokane Valley.

She says of SNAP, "The fact that they were willing to take a more individualized approach to looking at me as an applicant made all the difference." 

More could be done

At SNAP, businesses play a variety of roles in the organization's mission to fight poverty. The organization has developed successful partnerships with some companies in the Spokane area, however, more is needed from the business community, says Honekamp.

Campbell says business support for SNAP is mostly in the form of grant funding from companies such as Walmart Inc., Avista Corp., and financial institutions, including BECU, Mountain West Bank, and Bank of America. 

Businesses also provide support for SNAP through board participation, she says.

"Frankly, we're looking for more," says Campbell. 

SNAP Financial Access, which is a subsidiary of SNAP, is a community development financial institution that lends money to individuals for homes or businesses for commercial purposes for startup or expansion needs. 

"We provide all the training and support that people need to become empowered borrowers and also successful borrowers," Campbell says. "We like to say that one can't happen without the other."

SNAP supports businesses here by providing technical assistance such as with business planning, digital marketing, and accounting.

"We've been doing this long enough to know that these are the key activities that our clients need help with so that they can be successful in their business," says Campbell.

The business community can further support SNAP's work through highly qualified volunteers that can provide technical assistance to its clients, she says.

For instance, "We're looking for somebody who will volunteer and teach QuickBooks and digital marketing," Campbell says.

Businesses help support basic needs

Partnerships with businesses here have helped the organization support over 53,300 people in Spokane County with energy assistance, home repair, and rental assistance last year, she says.

"We use a lot of businesses as vendors, in particular for our weatherization (program)," she says. "We also use a lot of local vendors in partnership to do the work that we don't have the capacity to do."

Avista Corp., for instance, is working with SNAP to design programs that mitigate the impacts of poverty, such as the My Energy Discount-Washington program that launched in October.

As of November, about 150 full-time employees worked at SNAP, according to the Journal's annual Largest Spokane County Employer's list.

The organization is one of 30 Community Action agencies in Washington state in a network of over 1,000 agencies in the U.S.

Throughout May, the nonprofit is promoting Community Action Month awareness to highlight SNAP's role in helping community members achieve economic independence.

"Community Action was formed out of the civil rights movement, and we have a deep commitment to social justice and reducing systemic barriers, particularly for marginalized communities," says Honekamp.

SNAP's mission is to fight poverty in Spokane County through its 30 programs regarding education, empowerment, and basic needs assistance. 

"We're also affordable housing providers," adds Honekamp. "We've got a portfolio of 15 affordable housing complexes. ...  We're in the process of actually getting ready, hopefully late this year or early next year, to break ground on a new affordable senior housing project in Spokane Valley."

Last year, the organization provided energy assistance to over 23,000 households, and utility assistance to about 2,500 homes. SNAP also weatherized over 350 units for energy efficiency, completed 388 home repairs and modifications for accessibility, and saved 462 homes from foreclosure in Spokane County, according to figures from SNAP's annual report.

"Poverty is one of those aspects of our society that continues to evolve," Honekamp says. "It shifts depending on what's happening in our country and in our world to some degree."

SNAP has been serving Spokane since 1966 and has grown to provide services in five Spokane-area neighborhoods including offices at 3102 W. Whistalks Way, in west Spokane; at the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center, at 500 S. Stone, in East Central Spokane; at 4001 N. Cook, inside the Northeast Community Center; at 212 W. Second, in downtown Spokane; and at 10814 E. Broadway, in Spokane Valley.