The Conversation (0)
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / February 4, 2026 / By Mastercard Strive
Originally published by Mastercard
2025 has reshaped the U.S. small business landscape in ways few expected. Shifts in economic policy, funding, and market dynamics have created new pressures - and opened new opportunities - for the entire ecosystem.
For Mastercard Strive USA, the key question that emerged early in 2025 was: How do we help small business support organizations - and the entrepreneurs who rely on them - not only weather these shifts, but turn them into opportunity?
Our answer was to deepen the roots of our network, strengthen the foundation of the program, and focus on actions that both strengthened the resilience of our partners and helped them move with confidence into 2026.
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth launched Mastercard Strive USA in 2023 with a bold ambition: to reimagine how the ecosystem equips and supports small businesses, especially those facing the greatest barriers. In Year 1, we focused on turning that vision into a reality while also having an immediate impact. Year 2 was about growing that impact by adding new partners and capabilities at both national and local levels.
Year 3 required a different approach. Faced with fast-moving conditions, partners needed stability, clarity, and practical tools to stay focused on what mattered most: delivering timely, high-quality resources to the entrepreneurs depending on them. Consequently, we focused on reinforcing partner resilience and tightening the connective tissue of the network, backing solutions that strengthen small business financial health at a moment when it mattered more than ever. At the same time, we continued to grow our impact by adding new organizations and solutions to our portfolio.
A more strategic form of growth
As of September 2025, Mastercard Strive USA had reached more than two million small businesses, unlocked nearly $48 billion in capital for entrepreneurs, and engaged with 920 different partners. These numbers reflect not only growing scale, but a more intentional pattern of growth, shaped by the realities of the year.
Long-standing partners such as Community Reinvestment Fund, USA and Accion Opportunity Fund continued to drive national reach. At the same time, new partners like Heartland Forward and Scale Link opened channels into regions and sectors where demand for trusted support accelerated.
Key milestones from our community include:
Accessity, one of our first innovation fund winners, integrated technology upgrades into their lending process with the goal of becoming more efficient. One notable result: Through a partnership with Radiant Data, they developed and deployed a new credit model to help staff better evaluate borderline cases, which helped drive historical levels of lending for the organization in 2025.
Community Reinvestment Fund, USA implemented its CRF Exchange product to support enrollment in California IBank's four loan guarantee programs. Over $1.5 billion has now flowed through CRF Exchange, demonstrating how the tool can be used at significant volume.
Rural LISC's Business Development Organization (BDO) Network, which focuses on supporting entrepreneurs in rural communities, provided over 4,500 hours of business coaching, training, and advisory services; hosted 189 workshops or training sessions; and supported the deployment of $775,000 in loans and $120,000 in grants to Community Financial Institutions (CFIs) and Business Support Organizations (BSOs). This work resulted in the creation of 4,826 jobs in rural communities.
Inclusiv's Small Business Capital Initiative has helped numerous Community Development Credit Unions (CDCUs) and cooperativas deploy more small business loans by providing new financing tools and education. For example, members transacted nearly $3 million in loans through Inclusiv's new Loan Participation Marketplace. Graduates of their Small Business Capital Initiative Learning Center also deployed over $69 million in small business loans to entrepreneurs.
Momentus Securities continues to build out their loan securitization program for small business lenders. Since the beginning of the grant, they have recruited eleven CDFIs and business lenders to participate in creating the secondary market for CDFI loans. They have purchased over $46 million in loans and sold over $41 million in assets to dae.
We also invested in strengthening local ecosystems in Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, California, and the DMV region (Washington, DC; Maryland, and Virginia). New partners supporting this work include Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (Georgia), the Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Washington, DC), and the new Entrepreneurship Center for Growth and Excellence (Alabama).
Since launching the program, Mastercard Strive USA has supported 45 different organizations shaping the nation's small business support infrastructure.
Building a more connected community
This year made one thing clear: connection is a key component of resilience. When partners share what they're seeing, what they're testing, and where they're feeling strain, the entire network becomes stronger.
In Year 3 we launched several initiatives to strengthen connections and collaboration among the organizations we support, reflecting our goal to build a portfolio that is greater than the sum of its parts.
To make collaboration easier, we launched a new low-barrier collaboration fund for our partners, designed to spark new relationships and accelerate promising ideas without adding administrative burden. To date, the fund has supported six initiatives - from exploring the launch of a new CDFI to enabling data sharing among leading industry organizations. The through-line is a simple premise: remove friction and let partners explore what's possible.
Our second annual grantee convening in November took place in Detroit, Michigan - and it embodied that same spirit of connection. More than 50 representatives from over 25+ partner organizations gathered to reflect on the crosscurrents shaping their work, compare notes on what they're hearing from small businesses and peers, and identify shifts needed to strengthen resilience in 2026. We also organized workshops on topics such as strategic foresight, which helped our partners envision what the small business sector might look like in ten years so they could start preparing for that new reality now.
The conversations were candid, pragmatic, and rooted in the real experiences of entrepreneurs - exactly what this moment calls for.
Bringing a clearer voice to the field
The insights we gathered from more than 30 ecosystem leaders early in the year surfaced six key shifts our network sees as essential for long-term entrepreneurial success. We carried those insights forward through a focused push that engaged both public and private audiences, including coverage in American Banker and Impact Alpha.
The response has been encouraging. Partners across the country are using the insights to inform planning, refine strategies, and align their teams. We'll carry momentum into 2026 by sharing new examples of what's working - especially from organizations that have navigated this year's volatility with resilience.
Looking ahead
Change - and being nimble enough to adapt to that change - will remain a defining feature of the small business environment in 2026. Technology, capital flows, and regional economic conditions are all shifting at different speeds, and partners will continue to face both pressure and possibility.
What we know for certain is that small business support organizations do their best work when they have strong foundations and strong networks. That is where we will continue to focus our energy.
As we enter 2026, we do so with:
A more connected and resilient partner community.
A clearer view of where entrepreneurs need stability most.
A growing set of tools and learnings that can help the field move forward with confidence.
Through every shift, one commitment remains constant: ensuring that small businesses in every community can build stability, seize opportunity, and grow on their own terms.
We are grateful for the work our partners do every day - and ready for what comes next, together.
Continue reading here.
View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Mastercard on 3blmedia.com.
Contact Info:
Spokesperson: Mastercard
Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/mastercard
Email: info@3blmedia.com
SOURCE: Mastercard
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
