The Partnership Playbook: How Community Lenders Are Revolutionizing Small Business Job Quality Through Strategic Collaboration

Community development financial institutions are transforming how small businesses create good jobs by building strategic partnerships that expand capacity, share expertise, and multiply impact across local economies.

Key Takeaways

• Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are using strategic partnerships to help small businesses create higher quality jobs beyond just providing capital
• Successful partnerships expand organizational capacity while allowing deeper, more tailored support for specific communities and industries
• Cross-sector collaboration enables CDFIs to reach businesses that wouldn't otherwise know about job quality resources and support
• Curriculum development becomes more effective when multiple organizations contribute their specialized expertise and on-ground experience
• Client-as-partner models leverage the authentic knowledge of business owners who are already implementing good job practices
• Partnership networks create multiplier effects where organizations can refer clients to complementary services they don't provide
• The most impactful collaborations involve shared platforms and common language around job quality goals and strategies
• Trust-building takes years but enables authentic partnerships that ground new initiatives in real community needs
• Successful partnerships balance formal organizational relationships with informal knowledge-sharing among practitioners who understand the work

Beyond Capital: The Evolution of Community Development Finance

The community development financial institution sector has quietly been undergoing a fundamental transformation that goes far beyond traditional lending. While CDFIs have always been known for providing capital to businesses that can't access conventional bank loans, organizations like Colorado Enterprise Fund and California Farm Link are pioneering approaches that recognize something crucial: access to money is just the beginning of what small businesses need to create good jobs.

Janet Buger from Colorado Enterprise Fund puts it simply: "The CF's mission is to serve as many people as we can to provide those loans that they can't get anywhere else." But what makes this work particularly interesting is how that mission has expanded to include job quality as a core component of business development support.

This shift reflects a growing understanding that small businesses often want to be good employers but lack the knowledge, resources, or support systems to implement practices that benefit both workers and bottom lines. Traditional business lending focuses primarily on creditworthiness and repayment capacity. This new approach asks deeper questions about how businesses can contribute to thriving local economies where workers earn living wages, have opportunities for advancement, and experience dignity at work.

• CDFIs are uniquely positioned to influence job quality because they already have trusted relationships with small business owners
• Many small businesses want to offer good jobs but don't know how to balance worker benefits with business sustainability
• The sector is moving beyond transactional lending toward comprehensive business ecosystem support
• Job quality work requires different expertise than traditional underwriting, creating natural opportunities for partnership
• Community-based organizations often serve the same populations but from different angles, creating synergies when they collaborate
• The shift toward job quality reflects broader recognition that economic development must benefit workers, not just business owners

The Network Effect: Why Partnerships Multiply Impact

What becomes clear from listening to Andrea Levy and Janet Buger describe their work is that partnerships aren't just nice add-ons to their core programming – they're absolutely essential for creating meaningful change. The math is pretty straightforward: no single organization has all the expertise, relationships, or capacity needed to address the complex challenges small businesses face when trying to improve job quality.

Andrea Levy from California Farm Link explains how this plays out in practice: "We have a network of organizations doing this type of work in California specifically because the farming community is so rich there but it's also a very big state." The geographic reality alone requires collaboration, but the deeper insight is about "lifting the ecosystem" rather than competing for limited resources or recognition.

This ecosystem approach recognizes that when multiple organizations work together effectively, they create something larger than the sum of their parts. Small business owners get access to a broader range of services. Workers benefit from improved conditions across multiple employers. And the organizations themselves become more effective because they're not trying to be everything to everyone.

The partnership model also addresses a persistent challenge in business development work: how do you reach businesses that don't already know they need help with job quality? Many small business owners are so focused on day-to-day operations that they might not even realize there are resources available to help them improve working conditions, increase employee retention, or design benefit packages.

• Geographic coverage becomes more comprehensive when organizations coordinate rather than duplicate services
• Businesses receive more holistic support when organizations refer clients to complementary services
• Knowledge sharing among organizations accelerates learning and prevents each group from reinventing solutions
• Partner networks can reach businesses through multiple entry points, increasing the likelihood of engagement
• Collaborative approaches build trust more quickly because businesses see consistent messaging across multiple trusted sources
• Resource leveraging allows smaller organizations to offer programming that would be impossible individually

Community-Based Organizations as Strategic Partners

Janet Buger's approach to building partnerships reveals something important about how effective collaboration actually happens. She doesn't just attend networking events or send formal partnership proposals. Instead, she goes to community-based organization meetings, speaks at their events, and asks a fundamental question: "What do you need?"

This approach recognizes that the most sustainable partnerships emerge from genuine mutual benefit rather than one organization trying to sell its services to another. Community-based organizations often serve the same small business owners that CDFIs want to reach, but they may not have the specific expertise or resources to address job quality issues. Meanwhile, CDFIs may have excellent job quality programming but limited ability to reach certain communities or industries.

The key insight is customization. As Janet explains, "We can customize the job quality to their constituents." This isn't about delivering a one-size-fits-all workshop to different audiences. It's about understanding the specific challenges, cultural contexts, and priorities of different communities and adapting programming accordingly.

For example, job quality issues look different for immigrant-owned restaurants than they do for family farms or tech startups. The underlying principles around fair wages, safe working conditions, and advancement opportunities remain consistent, but the implementation strategies, cultural considerations, and economic constraints vary significantly.

• Effective partnerships start with listening to what community-based organizations actually need rather than pitching existing services
• Customization is essential because job quality challenges manifest differently across industries, cultures, and business models
• Trust-building happens through consistent presence at community events rather than formal partnership agreements
• Many community-based organizations want to support their clients' employment practices but lack specific expertise in this area
• Cross-referral relationships benefit everyone when organizations can confidently recommend complementary services
• The most valuable partnerships often involve informal knowledge sharing that happens through ongoing relationship building

Curriculum Development Through Collaborative Expertise

Perhaps nowhere is the power of partnership more evident than in curriculum development for job quality programming. California Farm Link's experience creating their "Employment Resiliator" course demonstrates how collaborative curriculum development can produce resources that no single organization could have created alone.

The process took almost a year and involved multiple types of partners contributing different forms of expertise. Consultants who had worked in the agricultural space brought theoretical knowledge and best practices from other industries. Farmers who were actually implementing good job practices contributed ground-level insights about what works and what doesn't in real business contexts. The UC Extension provided specialized survey services for measuring employment satisfaction – a technical capacity that would have been impossible for California Farm Link to develop internally.

What's particularly interesting is how the curriculum development process itself became a vehicle for expanding the job quality movement within the agricultural sector. Organizations that hadn't previously focused explicitly on job quality got pulled into the conversation as curriculum contributors. This meant that by the time the course launched, there was already a broader network of service providers who understood and could reinforce the job quality messages.

The approach also recognizes that the most credible teachers are often practitioners who are actually doing the work successfully. California Farm Link invites farmers to teach parts of their course because "they hold this knowledge as well. They're doing the work on the ground." This peer-to-peer learning model tends to be more persuasive than expert-led training because participants can relate to the challenges and constraints that farmer-instructors have navigated.

• Collaborative curriculum development produces more comprehensive and practical resources than single-organization efforts
• Different partners contribute different types of expertise – theoretical, technical, and experiential knowledge all play important roles
• The curriculum development process itself can expand awareness and buy-in for job quality work among potential partner organizations
• Peer learning models where successful practitioners teach others tend to be more credible and persuasive than expert-led training
• Technical services like employment satisfaction surveys require specialized capacity that makes partnership essential
• Year-long development timelines allow for iterative feedback and relationship building that strengthens the final product

Clients as Partners: Leveraging Authentic Experience

One of the most innovative aspects of the partnership approaches described in this conversation is the recognition that clients themselves can be valuable partners in advancing job quality work. This challenges traditional service delivery models where organizations provide expertise to passive recipients.

California Farm Link's decision to invite farmers to teach in their course reflects a fundamental insight: the people who are successfully implementing good job practices often have knowledge that can't be captured in academic research or policy reports. They understand the practical challenges, cultural dynamics, and financial trade-offs involved in creating good jobs within specific industry contexts.

This approach also builds credibility in ways that external expertise often can't match. When a farmer explains how they redesigned their benefits package or created advancement pathways for seasonal workers, other farmers can see themselves in that story. They understand the constraints and opportunities because they face similar ones in their own operations.

The client-as-partner model requires significant trust building over time. As Andrea notes, "That's kind of a partnership that also takes years to build and there's trust there." Farmers need to believe that California Farm Link genuinely values their expertise and isn't just looking for success stories to showcase. They need confidence that sharing their experiences won't expose them to criticism or competitive disadvantage.

• Successful practitioners often possess knowledge about job quality implementation that can't be captured through external research
• Peer learning models tend to be more persuasive because participants can relate to the constraints and opportunities described by other business owners
• Client-as-partner approaches require significant trust building and genuine valuing of practitioner expertise
• This model challenges traditional service delivery assumptions about who has knowledge and who needs to learn
• Long-term relationship building is essential for creating the trust necessary for authentic knowledge sharing
• Client partners provide credibility and real-world grounding that external experts often can't match

Resource Sharing and Mutual Referral Networks

The partnership models described in this conversation demonstrate how organizations can expand their impact by creating mutual referral networks where each organization focuses on what they do best while connecting clients to complementary services.

Janet Buger's relationship with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) illustrates this perfectly. She speaks at their women's accelerator program events to share information about job quality resources. In return, the SBDC refers businesses that are interested in job quality support to Colorado Enterprise Fund. When her clients need services that the SBDC provides but Colorado Enterprise Fund doesn't, she can confidently refer them because she knows the quality and approach of their programming.

This type of resource sharing creates value for everyone involved. Businesses get access to a broader range of services without having to navigate complex systems or duplicate intake processes. Organizations can focus their resources on their areas of expertise rather than trying to be comprehensive service providers. And the overall ecosystem becomes more efficient because there's less duplication and more coordination.

The key to making these referral relationships work effectively is developing enough familiarity with partner organizations to make confident recommendations. This requires ongoing communication, mutual understanding of each organization's strengths and limitations, and sometimes even participating in each other's programming to understand the client experience.

• Mutual referral networks allow organizations to expand their service offerings without diluting their core expertise
• Effective referrals require deep familiarity with partner organizations' approaches and service quality
• Resource sharing creates value for clients, organizations, and the broader ecosystem
• Organizations can focus on their strengths rather than trying to provide comprehensive services independently
• Cross-referral relationships often develop through informal relationship building rather than formal partnership agreements
• The most successful referral networks involve ongoing communication and mutual understanding of each organization's work

Building Shared Platforms and Common Language

Andrea Levy identifies something crucial about effective partnership work: the importance of developing shared platforms and common language around job quality goals. This goes beyond simple coordination to create alignment around core messages and approaches.

When multiple organizations in a region all start talking about job quality using similar frameworks and language, it reinforces the importance of these issues for small business owners. Instead of hearing different messages from different sources, businesses encounter consistent messaging that builds credibility and understanding over time.

This shared platform approach also makes it easier for organizations to build on each other's work rather than starting from scratch with each new business engagement. If a farmer has attended a workshop on job quality hosted by one organization, another organization can build on that foundation rather than covering basic concepts again.

Developing shared language doesn't mean organizations lose their unique approaches or identities. Rather, it means finding common ground around core concepts while maintaining the flexibility to customize delivery based on specific organizational strengths and community needs.

• Shared platforms create consistency in messaging that reinforces job quality concepts across multiple touchpoints
• Common language allows organizations to build on each other's work rather than starting from scratch with each business engagement
• Alignment around core frameworks while maintaining organizational flexibility creates both consistency and customization
• Multiple organizations delivering similar messages builds credibility and reinforces importance of job quality concepts
• Shared platforms enable more efficient use of limited resources by reducing duplication and increasing reinforcement
• Common language development requires ongoing communication and coordination among partner organizations

The conversation reveals that successful partnerships in job quality work require intentionality, trust building, and genuine commitment to mutual benefit rather than just organizational self-interest. The most effective collaborations seem to emerge organically from shared commitment to community benefit rather than formal partnership structures imposed from above.

What's particularly compelling about these approaches is how they recognize that job quality work is inherently collaborative. No single organization has all the expertise, relationships, or resources needed to help small businesses create good jobs at scale. But when organizations work together strategically, they can create ecosystem-level change that benefits workers, businesses, and communities.

The partnership models described here offer practical approaches that other CDFIs and community-based organizations could adapt to their own contexts. The key seems to be starting with genuine curiosity about what other organizations need, building trust through consistent presence and mutual support, and maintaining focus on shared goals rather than organizational credit or recognition.