Several Spokane-based nonprofits have created free online directories in recent years that make it easier to find businesses owned by people of color.

Such groups include AHANA, Nuestras Raíces Centro Comunitario, the Native Business Center, Carl Maxey Center, and Latinos en Spokane.

“I believe Spokane is currently 88% white,” says Marvo Reguindin, executive director of AHANA. “Diversity is important for Spokane, and when you have such a very small percentage of diversity in your community, just trying to be able to find a BIPOC business becomes difficult.”

BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color. AHANA is a Spokane-based nonprofit that provides education, technical assistance, and outreach to all multiethnic and multicultural business owners and their communities. AHANA is an acronym for Asian, Hispanic, African, Native American.

There are currently about 800 Spokane businesses listed in AHANA’s Multi-Ethnic Business Directory, Reguindin says.

“There is not a (government) source at the moment where we can go to request a list of BIPOC businesses,” says Reguindin, who is Filipino and owns and operates Thinking Cap Communications & Design Inc., of Spokane. “That’s because when you create a business license, you’re not required to state your ethnicity. That’s just an optional question.”

In 2020, AHANA received contracts from the Washington state Department of Commerce to reach out to businesses owned by people of color to ensure they had heard about available funding and relief opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization didn’t have a directory at the time, so it began doing research to find businesses owned by people of color and eventually developed its resource.

“Small businesses, primarily when they start out, they just like to start working,” he says. “They may not dedicate any money to marketing.”

AHANA plans to transition its directory to a new, more user-friendly platform, Reguindin says.

Nuestras Raíces Centro Comunitario, an affiliate of Spokane-based nonprofit Hispanic Business/Professional Association, has about 245 Spokane businesses either listed on or being added to its Hispanic/Latino Business Directory.

“I think it’s really important that the city knows about this,” says Isabel Mazcot, director of economic development at Nuestras Raíces and HBPA. “We want to make sure that the economy is a little bit more diverse and to break some of those systematic barriers that a lot of the Latino-Hispanic businesses go through.”

HBPA has been sharing a list of its member businesses in its newsletters since the early 2000s, Mazcot says, but in 2018, the organization put together an online directory, making the list available to everyone.

Mazcot says it's not just individuals who reach out about HBPA's member businesses, but also companies or other nonprofits that are looking to hire them.

“It provides economic opportunities that (businesses) would not have,” says Mazcot, who was born in Mexico.

Mazcot checks in with companies on a quarterly basis to make sure they are still in business and the directory stays up to date.

The Native Business Center, a Spokane-based nonprofit powered by Sister Sky Inc. that provides Native-owned small businesses with training and resources, has 270 Washington state businesses listed on its Washington state Native Business Directory. Of those, 62 businesses are in Spokane.

“It’s our passion to help other Native small businesses,” says Tracy Kieffer, program manager at Native Business Center and Spokane Tribe member. “Any help they can get is a big hand up.”

Created in 2022, the Native Business Directory is the only one of its kind in Washington, Kieffer contends.

“We would find some sporadic lists of Native businesses, but then we would try to contact some of those businesses, and they were outdated or out of business,” she says. “Our goal is to go in once a year and verify all the businesses so that we don’t have a useless directory.”

Carl Maxey Center and Latinos en Spokane also have business directories complete with contact information and links to websites and social media pages.

Carl Maxey Center’s directory, called the Spokane Black Business Directory, currently has 100 businesses listed. The Latinos en Spokane directory includes 136.

The various Spokane directories are resources not just for potential customers looking to patronize businesses owned by people of color, but also for other businesses to connect with each other.

The Native Business Directory, for example, has led to collaboration and partnerships between businesses, Kieffer says.

“That was a huge success for the directory,” she says. “It’s some place for Native businesses to find other Native businesses to support their own small business.”

HBPA also receives calls from businesses that are looking for Hispanic-Latino companies to connect with, Mazcot says.

Business owners can reach out to these nonprofits to be added to their directories, but the organizations also work to get more businesses added.

HBPA, for example, offers business consultation for people interested in starting a business. Every business that HBPA helps launch is automatically added to the directory, Mazcot says.

Last year, HBPA helped launch 32 new Hispanic-Latino businesses. In 2022, the nonprofit helped launch 22 businesses.

Mazcot says the organization plans to do more outreach and build more relationships to help bolster the directory this year.

AHANA built its directory by finding businesses in the phone book and researching them through the Secretary of State website, Reguindin says.

AHANA hasn’t done a campaign to add businesses to its directory, but “networking and word-of-mouth” have led to some new additions, he says.

Both AHANA and HBPA spread the word about their directories at community events, Reguindin and Mazcot say.

The Native Business Center gets about four or five businesses that reach out to be added to its directory each month, but the rest are added through outreach efforts, Kieffer says. The nonprofit reaches out to various tribes, tribal associations, and other organizations that provide services for Native Americans, she says.

“There’s always more businesses out there that we don’t know about,” Kieffer says.