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Drawing on survey and interview data from the small business owners involved in the demonstration, this endline evaluation 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 to explore their perspectives on and experiences of job quality.
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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Video — Shared Success, a project of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, is grounded in the understanding that building better jobs and building stronger businesses go hand in hand.
This infographic shares statistics on impact of the Economic Opportunities Program’s Shared Success demonstration. Dive into a detailed breakdown of the diverse businesses and entrepreneurs involved in this work.
This brief shares key lessons and takeaways that could be used to implement internal job quality practices to strengthen CDFIs and other small business support organizations.
Supporting small business owners in understanding and acting on workers’ perspectives is a promising practice for simultaneously advancing job quality and small business development organizations’ missions to promote economic resilience.
Comprehensive findings from qualitative and quantitative research on participating small business owners and workers conducted at the end of the demonstration will be released in spring 2026.
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.
