Overview

Why are you interested in becoming a Trustee?

The Tenderloin Equitable Development Project (TEDP) builds self-sufficiency and creates jobs through stabilizing, retaining, and growing small, immigrant-owned businesses located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. The City’s poorest neighborhood, the Tenderloin is a multi-ethnic community consisting of 42-blocks bordered by Market, Larkin, Geary, and Mason Streets. Of the approximately 300 small, family-owned businesses in this neighborhood, one-third are restaurants, primarily owned by low-income monolingual immigrant families. Access to affordable financing is vital to building the capacity of these small businesses, which will result in revenue growth, enhanced profitability, and increased employment in the neighborhood.

What is the mission of your organization?

We work with a diverse assembly of neighborhood stakeholders in the field of arts, education, housing, hospitality and technology. Our goal is equitable development for the Tenderloin community.

Borrower Due Diligence

How will you decide who to endorse as a borrower? What due diligence will you conduct?

TEDP digs deep into economic development in the Tenderloin by conducting ground level assessments. Simply stated, our staff goes into the community and asks what businesses need. Small businesses in the Tenderloin do not seek us, we pursue them and deliver resources to their doorstep. We sit down with business owners and listen to their stories. Through deep conversation we get an understanding of business owners' history, successes, and challenges. We eat at these restaurants and visit these corner markets throughout the day and multiple times a week. We also interview the customers and community leaders. Once trust is built between business owners and TEDP, we take them on as clients and assess our organizational capacity to deliver the services they need. Our strong connections in the neighborhood and throughout the city of San Francisco have allowed us to link our clients to the critical services they need that we do not have the capacity to provide.