Supporting Women Entrepreneurs
Nancy Swift Leads JEDI’s Economic Mission in Northern California…
As the chair of the statewide California Women’s Business Center Network and the founding director of the Jefferson Economic Development Institute (JEDI), Nancy Swift has spent most of her professional life seeking ways for community to thrive. “For going on 30 years, I’ve been privileged to be a part of a group focused on building a community-based, small business owner-focused organization,” Swift says. “We have run many kinds of entrepreneurship programs, from the Small Business Association-sponsored Women’s Business Center to the IRS-sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, a free tax-preparation program that we’ve been doing for 20 years. Everything we’ve done has been designed to respond to the needs we see, and the things people ask for.”
Even as initiatives evolve or change, the purpose doesn’t shift. “At JEDI, we’ve tried to bring resources, talent and quality educational opportunities for people running micro and small businesses who want to improve their economic futures. And when they come, they know that we’re here for whatever their circumstances are.” Swift says the reason behind this philosophy is straightforward.
“We get feedback all the time that business owners call us for assistance, and they end up getting so much more. They find hope. We know that this kind of accessibility to resources builds local economic strength and contributes to generational wealth building, which is critical in this underserved region in far Northern California. It has tremendous value for the person starting the business, the family that it supports, and the economy that it’s contributing to because more than 90 percent of the jobs provided to people in this region come from the smallest of businesses.”
Swift’s especially keen interest in women’s economic justice stretches far beyond Siskiyou County. Earlier in her career, Swift worked internationally as a microenterprise specialist in Kazakhstan, five years after the fall of the Soviet Union. “We worked with women whose husbands had died in the struggle, and their country was transitioning from socialism to democracy so their survival required something new,” Swift recalls. “It was a very dynamic moment where we worked to help women understand that all 100 of them didn’t need to only sell tomatoes, explaining that if everyone just kept pricing their tomatoes lower than the next person, nobody won, and there would be a glut
on tomatoes.”
Eventually, Swift says other ideas began emerging, like shoe-making, services and the trades. “It was revelatory for them, and I got to see the power of what it means when women have their own agency in their economic future.”
Swift says her experience in Kazakhstan was later reinforced through other successful economic models that also involved empowering women in particular, such as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning work of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. “When Muhammad Yunus first came on the scene, everyone was excited about the fact that he’d created a rural bank owned by rural women that made loans to women. Culturally, this was unheard of. Those women made that bank so successful that eventually, in the last five years actually, the government of Bangladesh took 51 percent control of the bank and ousted Muhammad Yunus because they understood the political power female bank members had achieved ‒ with girls going to school. Communities were thriving. Women were voting. His work clearly demonstrated that if you invest in a woman, she betters her kids’ future. She puts a roof on her home. She sends her kids to school. She makes a difference in her community, and that is a worthy investment that can change a society.”
While Swift acknowledges that the Grameen model (of group-based lending) isn’t necessarily applicable to Northern California, it still inspires her to look for new ways to strengthen the region’s economy through entrepreneurship, including a focus on women through the Women’s Business Center. “We’re going through a wholesale shift in our economy right now. It’s important for us to ask, what comes next? How do we handle the ethical questions that arise with the growth of artificial intelligence? How can we make meaningful change for business owners so that local businesses can viably sustain their families and our communities? We do see that women are a driving economic force, so I want to continue to see what the needs are to help them to unleash that power. I’m always looking for people to build a shared vision with.”
As a mother of two daughters, ages 15 and 17, Swift feels that responsibility personally. “I want to leave a legacy I am proud of for them to participate and, possibly more importantly, I want to listen to what they see needs to be done in the world.”
In celebration of International Women’s Day in March, Swift hopes people will pause to recognize women’s economic power in tangible ways. “Go out and talk to a woman who’s running a business, and ask them about what it means to them. Then, buy something from them because small business development is the means to stronger economic security in every community,” she says.
Swift also agrees with the motto framing this year’s celebration and repeats its sentiment: “When women thrive, we all rise.”•
For any small business owner interested in learning more about JEDI’s services, tax preparation or the
Women’s Business Center, please visit www.jedieconomy.org, email nswift@e-jedi.org or call (530) 926-6670.
