By Madeleine Voth
In Portland, it is typical to see residents put their money where their neighborhood is. A 2025 nav.com survey of residents in the 40 largest US cities ranked Portland third for support of small businesses, with residents reporting an average of $555.52 spent at local small businesses over the previous year. 84 percent of Portland respondents said it was important to them that their money stay in their community when they shop.
However, supporting local businesses as a customer does not necessarily make running one easy—particularly for business owners who have historically faced greater barriers.
According to a Federal Reserve survey of small businesses from fedsmallbusiness.com, 35 percent of white-owned firms that applied for traditional financing in 2021 received all the financing they sought, compared with 16 percent of Black-owned firms and 19 percent of Hispanic-owned firms. The Federal Reserve has found similar disparities in financing access for businesses owned by people of color across multiple years of its Small Business Credit Survey.
The Avenue Foundation, a Portland-based nonprofit organization, is trying to bridge that gap by providing small grants to BIPOC-owned businesses in Portland while pairing the money with support, coaching and mentorship.
The foundation’s Avenues of Impact program provides a $1,000 grant funded through one percent of Avenue Agency’s revenue, along with digital marketing consulting and coaching sessions. Businesses must be at least 50 percent BIPOC-owned, registered in Oregon and have a purpose-driven mission with a social, environmental or community impact. Woman-owned businesses and nonprofits can receive additional consideration.
Anna Madill, who founded Avenue Agency nearly 11 years ago, launched the foundation after years of working with entrepreneurs and helping administer grant programs through Prosper Portland. “There is a ton of data just locally, but also nationally,” Madill said. “Women and BIPOC business owners are at a much greater disadvantage of being able to get funding.”
For Madill, the solution is not simply to give business owners money. “Just giving money is one thing,” Madill said, “but it can often not necessarily do what the donor intends it to do.”
As a result, each Avenue Foundation grant is paired with support intended to help business owners make the most of the funding. Avenue’s team provides marketing assistance in areas including SEO, paid advertising and social media, while recipients receive coaching and business support.
That approach grew partly from Madill’s own experience. During Avenue’s second and third years, she said she was unsure whether the company would survive. She eventually found support through the Portland chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Accelerator program, which connected her with other business owners, mentors and training.
“Accelerator really was the place where I felt like I found people for the first time who really got what I was going through as a business owner,” Madill said. “I really feel like that community helped me.”
The Avenue Foundation is now trying to create a similar community for the business owners it serves.
Applicants describe their business, goals, challenges and plans for the money. The foundation verifies businesses through information such as their websites, social media accounts and physical locations, and uses a scoring rubric to evaluate applications.
The foundation also tries to make the grant application process useful for businesses that are not selected, by giving them feedback and are encouraging them to apply again during the next cycle.
For Madill, that feedback is important because applying for funding can otherwise feel like a “black box.” “You don’t know why it was a no,” she said. “Like, what can I improve?”
The foundation’s approach reflects a broader network of business support already present in Portland. Madill said neighborhood business communities and city initiatives have helped promote local businesses, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, she said finding that support can still be difficult for small-business owners to navigate. “There does seem to be a decent amount of support for small businesses,” Madill said. “I think some small businesses might say that it’s a little bit opaque as to how to get that support from a funding perspective.”
Avenue’s own work reflects that emphasis on combining funding with other forms of support. Through partnerships with Prosper Portland, Mercatus and Xxcelerate, the agency says it has supported more than 45 women and BIPOC entrepreneurs with mentorship, marketing consultation and more than $90,000 in grant funding since 2022.
The foundation plans to hold its first mixer in March 2027, bringing together past grant recipients, businesses that applied but did not receive funding and other women- and BIPOC-owned businesses. Madill said the goal is to create a place where business owners can find potential collaborators, mentors and other people who understand what they are going through.
For the Avenue Foundation, the goal is to make the $1,000 grant just one part of a larger support system. “We’re trying to give each business owner who receives a grant just a support system to help them get off the ground,” Madill said.
To learn more about the Avenue Foundation, apply for an Avenues of Impact grant or find out how to support its work as a donor, visit avenueagency.com/avenue-foundation-grant.
Anna Madill, center left, and her team. Photo by Madill.
