CIELO

CIELO catalyzes hope, resilience, and stability in under-resourced communities by helping enterprising individuals transform their dreams of owning a neighborhood business into reality.

CIELO has been helping low-income Orange County residents pursue financial stability since 2012, when CIELO first began as an incubated project of Oak View Renewal Partnership (OVRP) to serve the under-resourced Oak View community of Huntington Beach. While CIELO’s programming was being tested and refined in this neighborhood, an economic study on CIELO’s potential community impact revealed that CIELO had the potential to fill the gap of inequality for many of Orange County’s low-income and under-resourced entrepreneurs. After officially launching in 2016 and operating as a fiscally sponsored project of OVRP for three years, CIELO received independent 501(c)(3) status in March 2018. CIELO has become a comprehensive ecosystem for our immigrants and communities of color, helping to fill the gap in accessible, individualized entrepreneurial training and support.

CIELO now serves as a small business support system for all Orange County residents, with a focus on low-income and under-resourced individuals who lack the resources, knowledge, and support to change their economic trajectory. We aim to reduce opportunity inequality by providing our target population with the resources or connections they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Since launching in 2016, CIELO has continued to expand its impact and has supported over 5,000 individuals and helped over 500 businesses launch or become launch-ready.

In Fiscal Year 2025 (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025) alone, CIELO:

• Served 830 individuals, 98% of whom were low-to-moderate income.
• Reached a community made up of 83% women, 95% BIPOC entrepreneurs, and 45% non-native English speakers.
• Supported the launch of 91 new small businesses.
• Connected 85 clients to additional services through trusted community partners.
• Distributed $358,000 in working capital through loans and grants to 230 entrepreneurs to support business launch and growth.

These outcomes reflect our continued commitment to advancing economic mobility and addressing systemic inequities faced by underserved entrepreneurs.

When 2020 began, no one imagined the challenges the country would face in public health, the economy, and the renewed exposure of deep disparities impacting microbusinesses (small businesses with five employees or fewer) in under-resourced communities that drive our local economies. The COVID-19 recession disproportionately eliminated jobs in low-wage industries across Orange County, stripping already struggling families of income and financial stability. Many had no savings to weather the crisis, and small businesses owned by women, immigrants, and entrepreneurs of color faced significant barriers accessing relief due to systemic inequities in lending and federal aid distribution.

Contrary to its reputation as a land of beaches and wealth, Orange County contains neighborhoods where families live in overcrowded housing, experience high rates of childhood poverty, and face persistent financial instability. The cost of living remains among the highest in the nation, pushing nearly 60,000 working families into poverty. For low-income entrepreneurs, barriers such as limited access to capital, low credit scores, language access challenges, and exclusion from traditional banking systems make economic mobility an uphill battle even in stable times.

The COVID-19 crisis amplified long-standing inequities, but the challenges did not end there.

In 2025, intensified immigration enforcement actions in Orange County created a new wave of fear and instability for immigrant entrepreneurs and mixed-status families. Businesses began reporting sharp declines in customers as families avoided public spaces, schools, churches, and community events out of fear of detention or deportation. CIELO launched an Impact Survey to understand how our clients were being affected and found alarming trends:

• 85% of businesses reported being directly impacted, with some experiencing nearly a 50% loss in income, making it difficult to afford rent, groceries, and utilities.
• 21% reported worsening mental health, citing anxiety, isolation, and chronic stress.

As one client shared, “Our income has decreased by almost 50%, and we have faced financial and food difficulties, including problems meeting the needs of our children and paying rent, bills, and even buying groceries.”

Beyond the numbers, the ripple effects are profound. Fear of detention and deportation is driving emotional distress and social isolation. Daily routines have been disrupted, community trust has eroded, and local businesses hesitate to operate at full capacity. This climate of uncertainty is not only harming individual families, but it also weakens the broader regional economy.

In response, CIELO deployed $85,000 in emergency funds to support entrepreneurs in crisis and adapted our programming in real time. We launched emergency microgrants, expanded our Childcare Business Incubator to create safer income-generating opportunities, and integrated holistic supports such as Know Your Rights (KYR) workshops and mental health and wellness programming.

This work requires trust, patience, and deep community relationships. The compounded crises of public health, economic instability, and immigration enforcement have sharpened our model and reinforced our belief that meeting entrepreneurs where they are, geographically, culturally, linguistically, and psychologically, creates lasting impact.

Without intentional investment in a diverse and equitable business ecosystem, entrepreneurs from low-to-moderate income, immigrant, and BIPOC communities will continue to face systemic barriers that threaten their survival during every crisis. CIELO exists to ensure they do not face these challenges alone.

CIELO serves people throughout Orange County from our two locations in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa.

Last year was critical for CIELO’s future, as we continued to sharpen our focus and engagement with
Orange County’s neighborhood entrepreneurs, who are often in the shadows and forced into creating a side business because the minimum wage jobs they typically have access to, aren’t enough to live in
Orange County. In our under-resourced immigrant neighborhoods, access to living wage jobs are often
out of reach because of limited education, language or job training attainment.

So, who is the neighborhood entrepreneur? Well first, they are extraordinary. They are resilient, tenacious,
hard-working, resourceful and innovative. They are the definition of the entrepreneurial spirit and they exist
everywhere in Orange County, but the existing small business ecosystem doesn’t see them. We do. That’s
why CIELO exists.

Here’s the typical story of neighborhood entrepreneurs...
• A modest 2 bedroom apartment in Orange County cost at minimum, about $2,000/mo.
• To cover the cost of rent a household needs to make at least $40/hr, or $80,000/yr.
• Minimum wage is $15.50, so to make rent, a household needs to have about three minimum wage jobs.
(And again, that’s just barely making it by every month)
• In the household is an extended family of six: 2 parents, 2 children, an elderly grandparent, and a sibling
to one of the parents .
• To support the family, the father and his sibling work full-time kitchen and warehouse jobs at minimum
wage; Together they make two-thirds of what they need to afford rent.
• Childcare is too expensive, so the mother stays home with their 2 yr old and also keeps an eye on her
aging mother.
• To make ends meet, the mother creates a side neighborhood business out of her home – a taco stand
on her lawn during the day, and a catering business on the weekends; When her husband and brother
return from work, they also help.

After spending many years partnering with our under-resourced immigrant communities, we learned that
these neighborhood entrepreneurs really drive the local economies, and they deserve to be seen, to be
heard, and to be supported.

I urge you, our CIELO Community, to continue showing up and supporting our neighborhood superheroes.
Deep gratitude to our funding partners and donors for investing in us, to our community partners for
delivering valuable services, and to our clients for believing in yourself. Yes you can.

Iosefa Alofaituli
CIELO, Co-Founder & Executive Director