How Progress Works

Progress Through Business addresses the needs of low and moderate-income individuals and communities through a variety of business-based approaches. We help in the creation and growth of companies located in distressed and underserved urban and rural communities, as well as helping residents of those communities to become entrepreneurs. We assist employees and firms by improving practices and systems which improve financial stability. And we address environmental concerns by working with partners who believe that economic development and sustainability go hand in hand. In essence, we take an integrated approach to addressing the needs of companies and low- and moderate-income people.

The mission of Progress through Business is to sustain and enhance underserved communities through initiatives, research, networking and strategic partnerships to empower people, and improve the economic, environmental and social conditions of the communities we serve. We work at two levels. On the ground, we are staffed by a group of well-connected business professionals who are located in Illinois, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Utah, and Washington D.C. In addition, we have boards of advisors in California, Massachusetts and Texas that support the staff members’ work.

Our staff members work in several ways to help, low-income employees, minority and women-led firms, and, ultimately, large businesses by:

* developing businesses in underserved marketplaces; supporting small, minority- and women-owned enterprises through all stages of their growth, from start-up to Tier 1 supplier and beyond

* supplying free and low-cost personal tax service, usually on-site, to low-income employees at large companies and using software which links tax preparation to opening savings and checking accounts and enrolling employees in private and public benefits which are available to them

* building the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP) led nationally by the Kauffman Foundation, White House, Business Roundtable – Progress Through Business. hosts and assists in running the Milwaukee UEP Center and provides varying levels of support to other UEP Centers around the country

* contracting to link major corporations to environmental efforts offered by our affiliated companies and other non-profits

Progress Through Business traces its roots to 2004. Progress came about with a merger of two groups.One was started by John Hoffmire, who, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, started an organization with John Karl Scholz called the Center on Business and Poverty (Center).Today the Center is affiliated with both the Wisconsin School of Business and the Institute for Research on Poverty.The Center's non-profit wing merged with the Metropolitan Business Collaborative (MBC) in 2006. The MBC was founded by Al Bathrick and Don Graves. It was the original home of the Milwaukee Urban Entrepreneur Partnership. The MBC was modeled after a successful program in Boston that created minority-owned companies and assisted in building relationships between these firms and larger ones that were looking for minority partners.

All staff of Progress Through Business are volunteers, most of us retired executives who work up to half time for Progress, while receiving monthly health insurance premium payments. Our organization creates 20 times more value for low-income people in the United States than is spent to administer all parts of the organization.