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Aspen Institute
Publications
Shared Success Evaluation Results
December 17, 2025
Shared Success, and Economic Opportunities Program
This endline evaluation of the Shared Success demonstration aims to understand the impact of the work of the 11 community lenders who integrated job quality programming into their small business support services.
Drawing on survey and interview data from the small business owners involved in the demonstration, this deck details the types of job quality improvements made by businesses, their motivations, challenges, and outcomes. Key findings include:
92% of respondents reported making job quality improvements over the course of the Shared Success demonstration.
84% reported an observed change in business outcomes from job quality improvements.
85% plan to keep improving job quality in the future.
These findings suggest that improvements in job quality are both possible and effective for small businesses. As a part of the endline evaluation, interviews and focus groups with workers employed at small businesses participating in Shared Success were also conducted. Results from this worker research are forthcoming.
Shared Success, a project of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, shows how building better jobs can simultaneously uplift workers while also driving small business success.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
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This endline evaluation of the Shared Success demonstration aims to understand the impact of the work of the 11 community lenders who integrated job quality programming into their small business support services.
This Q&A provides insights and lessons from the work of 11 CDFIs that participated in Shared Success, a job quality demonstration led by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP).
This toolkit provides practical insights that community development financial institutions (CDFIs) can use to expand their impact and support small business job quality and growth.
