Research
The Research and Policy team at AOF supports the organization’s mission to advance economic mobility for underserved small business owners by conducting novel research on small business topics affecting underserved small businesses and their communities as well as advocating for policies that prioritize entrepreneurship, support low-income communities, and close our nation’s wealth gaps.
Our research spans across program evaluation which measures the effectiveness of our programming, client-facing surveys and focus groups that seek to improve our understanding of our customers’ experiences, and external collaborations with academic and research partners.
In the past, we have authored reports on the macroeconomic impact of our lending across five major markets, the experiences of Black entrepreneurs in the aftermath of the pandemic, and much more.
Community Impacts
As of June 2024:
- Total Clients Served Annually: 1,013,820
- Low Income Clients Served Annually: 608,283
- Minorities Served Annually: 454,194
- Total Jobs (Including Construction) Created and Retained by All Projects Since Inception: 10,875
- Total Construction Jobs Created Since Inception: 5,502
- Total Permanent Jobs Created and Retained by All Projects Since Inception: 5,373
- Total Accessible Jobs (Including Construction) Since Inception: 6,215
Research Reports
Empowering Excellence
This study from September 2023 sheds new light on how Black-owned small
businesses have survived, the resources they still need,
and the challenges they have faced in getting to this
point.
The Macroeconomic Impact of Small Business Lending
The benefits of a small business loan extend far beyond the individual borrower. As a small business owner invests their loan capital in inventory, equipment, payroll, and more, the initial capital injection creates downstream impacts in the local economy in the form of new wages, new spending, and new tax revenues. This report aggregates these activities and calculates the “Ripple Effect,” or macroeconomic impact, of AOF’s lending in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Texas—our largest lending markets—over the past eight years from 2016-2023.
Resourceful and Resilient
In September 2020, Accion Opportunity Fund surveyed its clients to assess how small business owners adapted their businesses in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Measuring the Impact of Opportunity Fund’s Trucking Program
This report provides a comprehensive picture of the triple-bottom-line impact of Opportunity Fund’s truck loans from November 2019. The effect of a small business loan extends far beyond the individual borrower. When Opportunity Fund lends to a trucker, significant downstream benefits ripple throughout the borrower’s family, the local and regional economy, and the environment.
5-year Key Entrepreneur Tracker Outcomes
Created and controlled by the Aspen Institute in 2007, is a survey to measure outcomes for micro- and small business owner clients of CDFIs and other microenterprise programs.
