San Diego’s small business community has a new full-time advocate. Business For Good San Diego, a nonprofit founded in 2017 to give local business owners a seat at the policy table, has hired its first full-time CEO, Melinda Casey, after landing a $500,000 grant from the Prebys Foundation earlier this year.
Casey, who most recently worked as director of learning and engagement at the literacy nonprofit Words Alive, started the role this month. She has described her commitment to community-rooted business as shaped by growing up in Appalachia, where she says she saw firsthand what happens to a town when local wealth and ownership leave. That perspective is central to Business For Good’s mission: helping San Diego-area business owners build companies that support their employees and neighborhoods, not just their bottom lines.
Business For Good describes itself as a scrappy alternative to the traditional chamber of commerce model, and it has had an uneven path to get here. The group lost its original grant funding years ago and shifted to a volunteer-run, membership-based structure to survive, with co-founder Mikey Knab saying the organization nearly folded during the pandemic’s shift to virtual meetings. The new Prebys funding, split with B Local San Diego, is meant to stabilize the group for the long term and deepen collaboration between the two organizations.
With Casey now leading full-time, Business For Good plans to expand its policy advocacy work across San Diego, pushing for a seat in more conversations that shape the regional economy. The group also intends to grow its training programs for underrepresented and underprivileged entrepreneurs, building on past work helping street vendors, home kitchen operators, and food truck owners navigate business licensing. Securing durable funding before the Prebys grant runs out is another priority on Casey’s list.
Business owners curious about the organization can meet members and leadership at its Fall Fundraising Dinner on October 29 at Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas, in San Diego’s North County. For a city where, by the group’s own numbers, the vast majority of businesses are small operations with 50 or fewer employees, a stronger, better-funded advocate in the room could matter well beyond this one hire.
Source: Times of San Diego
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