A plain-language map of every organization claiming to support San Francisco small business. Who they are. What they do. How to reach them. Where the money comes from. The Ledger is built for shop owners, neighbors, journalists, and anyone trying to make sense of it.
If you only have five minutes, three pieces of The Ledger will get you most of the way. One tells you exactly how to get the money. One shows the architecture of who supports small business in San Francisco. One lets you feel how the system works by walking through a real scenario.
San Francisco has more than sixty organizations that claim to support small business. The Office of Small Business. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The Small Business Commission. Small Business Forward. The SBDC. CDFIs. Chambers. BIDs. CBDs. Merchant associations. Cultural districts. Donor-funded vehicles you've probably never heard of. Each has a website. Each has a logo. Each says they help.
The problem is not a shortage of help. The problem is that the system is so dense that the people it is supposed to serve cannot find their way through it.
If you walked into a coffee shop, a vintage store, or a family-run restaurant tomorrow and asked the owner where they go when they need a loan, a permit, or someone to read their lease, most of them could not give you a clear answer. They've heard of a few of these names. They might have a business card in a drawer. They probably went through the Office of Small Business once, got handed a referral, and then nothing happened.
A current small business owner who wants to know where to actually go for help, and which orgs are worth your dues.
Someone planning to open a business in San Francisco who needs to understand the landscape before they sign a lease.
A neighbor who wants to support the corridor and is not sure how, where, or to whom.
A current member of a chamber or merchant association who is paying dues and wondering where the money actually goes.
A journalist, organizer, or policy person trying to make sense of the same picture.
A practical menu. The orgs below are the ones that, in my experience and in the documented record, actually deliver. The Ledger's full detail panels go deeper on each.
Every org in The Ledger has a marketing page. Most of them are real. Some of them oversell. A small business owner deserves to know which is which before they spend time chasing a promise that does not land.
Start with the Venn. The three pillars. Public Sector, Capital and Coaching, Membership and Place. Are the architecture. Everything else lives inside one of them or in the overlaps.
Use the funding source filter. Click any of the colored chips below the Venn to see which orgs depend on which money. A merchant association funded by member dues operates on different logic than a CDFI funded by the US Treasury.
Click any card for the detail panel. Every org card opens a modal with where their money comes from, where it goes, what's working, what's lacking, board size, how to join, meeting cadence, and (where documented) what's questionable about them.
Read the Civic Funds and Watchdogs sections together. One maps the donor-funded vehicles shaping politics; the other maps who's watching them. The Scrutiny section is what those watchdogs have produced.
Set the time of day. The picker in the top-right of every page changes the mood of the site to match whatever moment you want. Practical purpose: zero. Pleasure: yes.
The Ledger is a living document. The system changes. Orgs merge, fold, rebrand, get new leadership. I am one person paying attention from one corner of the city.
Three things I want from you:
Tell me about errors. If something in The Ledger is wrong, outdated, or unfair, email me. I correct quickly and credit when warranted.
Tell me what I missed. If you know a neighborhood association, cultural district program, or capital source I did not list, send the name. Especially for the parts of the city I move through less.
Tell me your story. If you've worked with one of these orgs and your experience matters to the public record, I want to know. Anonymous is fine. Quotable is better.
Budgets and structure from publicly available 990 filings (via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer), SF city budget documents, CBD assessment reports, and direct org publications.
Audits and scrutiny from the SF Controller's Office (including Public Integrity Assessments), the Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst, the SF Ethics Commission, the SF District Attorney, and the SF Civil Grand Jury.
Journalism from Mission Local, the SF Standard, the SF Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, KCBS, 48 Hills, SFist, the Bay Area Reporter, Hoodline, J. Weekly, Coyote Media, the SF Public Press, the SF Gazetteer, Underscore SF, CalMatters, and The Intercept.
Civic funds research draws on the Phoenix Project's published reporting on the donor network funding political pressure groups in SF.
Personal observation from running businesses in San Francisco, sitting on the receiving end of these orgs' marketing, and asking direct questions when answers were missing.
This is interpretive work. It tries to be fair. Where I draw a sharp conclusion, the source is named. Where the public record is missing, I say so.
If it saves you a phone call, a wasted meeting, a misdirected check, or six months of confusion, it has paid for itself.
Open The Ledger →Where do you need help?
Tell us what you are trying to do, and we will take you straight there.
Funding & grantsLoans, grants, emergency help, and free advising. Permits & getting registeredFacade help, permit assistance, and registration. My neighborhood's organizationsFind your merchant association and cultural district. Selling at markets & eventsVendor permits and how markets actually work. City departments & who decidesThe public offices that set the rules and write the checks. City policy & the ballotWhat is on the ballot and how rules get made.