To strengthen its local economy, Kansas City issued a clear directive: support the small businesses at the heart of the city. This mission led to a strategic partnership between two key players: Kansas City’s BizCare Office and the Economic Development Loan Corporation of Kansas City (EDC).
KC BizCare, a city agency founded in 2009, serves as a link between aspiring entrepreneurs and the city government. Its mission is to help business owners navigate Kansas City’s regulatory landscape, lessening the obstacles to thriving as a small business.
The partnership between KC BizCare and the EDC was designed to bridge the capital access gap, particularly for entrepreneurs who couldn’t secure traditional loans. The goal: get startup capital into the hands of small business owners quickly and efficiently.
Challenge: Creating an agile system within a bureaucratic framework
While Kansas City’s partnership combined policy know-how and capital expertise, the implementation was far from simple. Each small business capital program had unique eligibility criteria and application requirements, making it difficult to streamline processes. For this partnership to thrive, KC BizCare and the EDC needed a solution to address three key challenges:
- Disjointed program structures: Funds were to be distributed across multiple programs, each with different eligibility rules, timelines, and reporting requirements. This made procurement slow and challenging to manage.
- Fund distribution: Above all, the City and EDC needed a way to move funds quickly into the hands of entrepreneurs. Delays in distribution would not only slow down recovery efforts but also risk stalling the very businesses driving local economic growth.
- Blended and braided funding: Beginning in 2022, the City allocated $500,000 in federal ARPA funds to kickstart the effort, and later supplemented the program with $250,000 from the Kauffman Foundation and $15,000 from the National League of Cities. The program needed to be able to manage multiple funding sources with ease.
Solution: A flexible platform built to scale with every program
KC BizCare and the EDC discovered Beam, a platform uniquely equipped to solve their biggest implementation headaches. Nia Webster, then Division Manager of KC BizCare, came prepared with a clear vision and a full slate of ready-to-launch programs. What she needed was a partner who could bring that vision to life quickly.
Beam quickly became the connective tissue for the partnership, enabling KC BizCare and the EDC to execute their capital programs efficiently, equitably, and at scale. The platform addressed the programs’ primary challenges with a centralized, flexible approach.
Fast, flexible fund disbursement
KC BizCare and the EDC were piloting entirely new funding models to support local entrepreneurs.
“Bringing in private dollars the way I was doing was very new to the city,” Nia explained. “The traditional processes we had for moving money were slow and bureaucratic.”
To make these programs effective, Kansas City needed a faster, more flexible way to distribute funds, without sacrificing transparency or control. Beam’s platform made it possible.
“The most important feature for us was that Beam made it possible to reliably get money into the hands of businesses quickly.”
Centralized program management
Initially, the city had no unified system for managing its small business programming.
“Each program had different eligibility, reporting, and payment structures, and we had no centralized way to manage any of it,” Nia said. “Beam brought in the idea of having one central tool to manage applications, disbursement, and technical assistance in one space. It took a lot of weight off our new capital access manager.”
Beam’s modular platform offered the flexibility to build a customized solution that could support all of the capital programs under one system. This centralization enabled the city to oversee everything, from application intake to fund disbursement and technical assistance.
Currently, they use Beam to manage and track progress for six different programs:
- Savings Match Program (in partnership with Holy Rosary Credit Union)
- Micro Business Grants
- Social Impact Pitch Competition
- Outdoor Dining Enhancement Grants
- Back to Business Fund (focused on property-crime recovery)
“We're able to manage multiple programs. It allows us to pull great data from this one system. Even if some aspects aren’t managed directly through Beam, we can still track applicants and program performance in one place. That visibility is a huge help.”
Room to scale
One of the most significant advantages of using Beam was the ability to scale quickly. With a fully built platform in place, the BizCare office could take on new, unplanned initiatives without starting from scratch.
This flexibility proved essential when Kansas City’s Outdoor Dining Enhancement and Back to Business programs were suddenly approved by the mayor and city council. Though the programs were already announced to the public, the infrastructure to actually run them didn’t yet exist. The pressure was on to deliver and fast.
“Thank goodness we had Beam. We were actually able to execute two additional programs we didn’t know were coming because we had the Beam platform.”
Results: A platform for sustained community growth
With Beam in place, Kansas City and the EDC were able to deliver funding and support to small businesses faster, more efficiently, and with greater transparency than ever before.
“We can say we’ll get the money to you in two weeks, and then actually deliver it the same day. Beam gave us the ability to underpromise and overperform.”
The platform’s centralized interface made it easy for the team to stay responsive to internal stakeholders, the media, and the community. With all program elements in one place, the Capital Access Manager could provide real-time updates and resolve issues with clarity and speed.
“Being able to respond quickly is one of the biggest things when you're dealing with public dollars. Beam lets us push off a lot of noise because we can find the answers fast.”
Since launching with Beam, KC BizCare and the EDC have distributed $679,822 in funding and supported 106 local businesses What started as a pilot initiative has grown into a nimble funding infrastructure that empowers the city to meet today’s needs while scaling for tomorrow’s challenges.
With Beam, Kansas City is better equipped to support small businesses and its community. To learn more about how Beam can support your organization’s mission, take a look at our product demo.
