We hope you all were able to participate in Small Business Saturday on November 28^th, and support your local small businesses by doing some holiday shopping.

Small Business Saturday was founded with a simple goal, to help small businesses by providing what they need most — more customers — and with a simple purpose — when small business thrive, communities thrive.  Since 2011 Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) has been proud to lead the Small Business Saturday Coalition, and this year’s results tell an amazing success story:

• According to the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, total spending among U.S. consumers who were aware of Small Business Saturday reached $16.2 billion at independent retailers and restaurants on the day, an increase of 14 percent from $14.3 billion in 2014. 
• Among those who shopped on Small Business Saturday, 31 percent attended a community event on the day and 81 percent encouraged family and friends to support their local small businesses.
• There were 85 million social media engagements in support of Small Business Saturday.

WIPP’s work with the Coalition provides the foundation for Small Business Saturday.  Our efforts resulted in the following:

• Engaging over 425 organizations and community groups in supporting and amplifying the message;
• In rallying over 275 Congressional and Administration officials — including President Obama;
• In helping coordinate over 4,100 community events;
• Over 80 city economic development offices;
• 551 Mayoral offices in issuing proclamations;
• The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution designating November 28th, 2015 as Small Business Saturday; and
• 14 Public Service Announcements encouraging the public to “Shop Small” were recorded by government officials across the nation.

Please take a moment to watch and share the 2015 Small Business Saturday video shot with WIPP’s San Francisco office team: https://youtu.be/3W-8dsb-LuM

We could not be more proud of WIPP’s role in leading the Small Business Saturday Coalition and the hard work of WIPP’s team in their dedicated effort to make the day a success.  A special thank you goes to our partners, members and friends for their support of Small Business Saturday and local business.

As we enter December and 2016, we encourage everyone to Shop Small this holiday season and into the coming year.  In addition, we ask that you seek out other women-owned firms to partner with and do business with in the year ahead.  So add to your new year’s resolutions that this year you will make an extra effort to seek out other women-owned small business because “when women support each other, incredible things can happen.”