About Us
Since 2013, the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (CIE) has fostered the journeys of business owners in marginalized communities. We are a Washington nonprofit combining inclusive and accessible first-step business training and advising with networking and mentorship. Our goal is to empower rural communities to use entrepreneurship as a tool to create social, environmental, and economic justice.
Our Mission
Our mission is to make business ownership possible for people with limited resources in marginalized rural communities.
Our Vision
Our vision is rural places with resilient, self-reliant, and equitable local economies benefitting all life.
Our Values
We bring the following values to our work:
Justice, inclusiveness and resilience.
Everyone should be able to explore the possibility of business ownership, regardless of their circumstances. Our unique experiences and resilience in the face of incredible odds make us stronger entrepreneurs.
The wisdom of the individuals we serve.
We honor the story of each person we serve by taking time to understand their unique gifts, aspirations, and challenges – through their voice and their eyes. We practice curiosity, mindfulness, deep listening, and optimism.
Human empowerment.
We work to create spaces where all people can discover and harness their power and agency to live lives and build communities on their own terms – free of oppression and injustice.
Our History
From origins as an in-house program, into a robust network of resources serving multiple locations, see how the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship has evolved through the years:
- 2013 — Launch
- 2016 — Spin Out
- 2018 — Rural Pivot
- 2019 — North Olympic Peninsula
- 2021 — North Cascades
- 2023 — Columbia Basin
CIE was launched in 2013 as a program of Pinchot University, a graduate business school in Seatle, Washington, to reach underserved emerging entrepreneurs in urban Puget Sound.
Significant Projects: Icehouse Entrepreneurship Initiative (with Work Force Development); Worker Cooperative Program (with Northwest Cooperative Development Center); Food Innovation Network (with Global to Local); Washington Coast Works (with The Nature Conservancy); Mobile Grocery Cooperative (with Lifelong).
In 2016, CIE completed its incubation at Pinchot University and transitioned to an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Significant Projects: Olympic Wildcrafters Alliance (with UW’s Olympic Natural Resource Center in Forks, WA); the Cedar Roots Business Center (with the Ta’ala Fund for the Quinault Indian community).
Beginning in the urban Puget Sound region, in 2018, CIE pivoted to focus exclusively on rural Washington.
CIE partnered with the Washington Small Business Development Center to launch the North Olympic Entrepreneurship Onramp program with a full-time business advisor in Port Angeles serving Clallam and Jefferson Counties.
Significant Projects: Olympic Seafood Systems Alliance (with Rural Development Initiatives); the Green Equity Accelerator (with the North Olympic Development Center and Team Jefferson).
After piloting Startup Skagit Valley (2019-2020), we replicated our success on the North Peninsula with a full-time business advisor serving Skagit and Island Counties.
Significant Projects: Comadres (in Spanish, with the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce); Small Business Resiliency Network (with Washington Commerce, providing training and counseling in English and Spanish).
Our work in the Columbia Basin started in 2021 with Startup Palouse in partnership with the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance. In 2021, with Broche Family Trust and the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, we offered Startup en El Tri, a Spanish language startup accelerator in Pasco. We now have a full-time business advisor providing training and counseling in both Spanish and English throughout the Columbia Basin.
Significant Projects: Comadres Othello (in Spanish, with the City of Othello and the Othello Food Bank); Start Your Childcare Business (in Spanish, with Rural Development Initiatives); Train the Trainer (with the Economic Alliance of Okanogan County).
