Sid Voorakkara was watching a city council meeting on racial profiling by the San Diego Police Department when he first realized small businesses punched above their weight in political influence.
Nonprofit leaders and advocates from groups like the ACLU spoke to the council with little effect.
Then he watched the Main Street Alliance, a national group that acts as a progressive counterweight to traditional business groups, argue that racial profiling against customers and employees imposed an economic cost. Suddenly, the council appeared to be paying closer attention than they had all day, Voorakkara recalled.
Now a port commissioner, Voorakkara shared the anecdote during the fourth annual summit of Business for Good, a local organization that likewise aims to counteract groups like the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce by giving voice to business owners from the left.
Small business owners, he argued during the March gathering, maintain uniquely high public trust despite declining trust among other institutions. Small businesses have deep neighborhood relationships with employees and customers alike, and a vested interest in a region’s wellbeing, Business for Good says.
Explosive origin
Business for Good started in 2017 as a spin-off of the Main Street Alliance, but with a focus on reforming county governance and immigration, where the national network focuses mainly on universal healthcare.
Co-founder Mikey Knab, a former restaurateur, said it gained traction quickly, attracting 300 members in its first two years.
“We were shot out of a rocket at first,” Knab said.
Multi-disciplinary artist Ramel Wallace opens the (Doing) Business For Good Summit on Wednesday, March 4 at the University of San Diego in Linda Vista. (Photo by Natalie Chiles Photography/Business for Good)The group has focused on local advocacy for issues like legalizing composting for restaurants, founding San Diego Community Power and in what it considered its biggest success last year, boosting the effort to raise the minimum wage for hospitality workers.
But that early momentum stalled when funding it received from the Open Society Foundation, the philanthropic organization founded by billionaire George Soros that issues grants to progressive causes, ended years earlier than expected. A cadre of San Diego nonprofits in the foundation’s Open Places initiative failed to meet performance metrics, although BFG surpassed its goals, Knab said.
Business for Good laid off its sole employee in the ensuing financial crisis. It needed to try something new.
It changed models, relying on membership fees and becoming a volunteer-run group.
Micro-business reach
Their fees remain lower than those of its much larger conservative counterpart, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, making it a popular and accessible option for micro businesses and so-called solopreneurs — one-person startup operations — who share its politics.
“Solopreneur can be a lonely road, because I have subcontractors and I have clients, but not a lot of peers,” said Rachel Kumar, a marketing consultant who joined Business for Good in 2020 and now serves as board vice chair. “Having that group of allies and peers that we can bounce ideas off of and learn from each other has been so, so great.”
Rachel Kumar, left, and Cindy Lin speak at the (Doing) Business For Good Summit on Wednesday, March 4 at the University of San Diego in Linda Vista. (Photo by Natalie Chiles Photography/Business for Good)The organization does have a handful of large employer members, including San Diego Community Power, the Port of San Diego and Hale Productions. A few nonprofits and individuals have memberships as well. But the majority, 68%, are micro businesses with one to three employees.
For those small firms, Business for Good has been key in finding a community with shared values.
Timely advocacy
When Cindy Lin left the EPA to start data analytics company Hey Social Good, she tried several national and international purpose-driven business groups, but found them full of corporate speak and not much else.
When she tried the local option, Business for Good, she was immediately enamored with their push for a styrofoam ban.
“I don’t know any other business owners who did that,” Lin said. “They were doing something concrete on the ground.”
Business For Good co-founder Mikey Knab, standing at podium in black jacket, leads a workshop on crafting public comment during the (Doing) Business For Good Summit on Wednesday, March 4 at the University of San Diego in Linda Vista. (Photo by Natalie Chiles Photography/Business for Good)The organization teaches business leaders how to leverage power at the local level. At the summit, Knab and advocacy committee chair Erica Castillo ran a workshop teaching attendees how to craft public comments.
Before joining BFG, Kumar had “zero” knowledge of local government. But now she’s met with every city council member, gone to county meetings and given public comments.
“(With) so much out of our control on a national level, it feels empowering,” Kumar said. She noted that in the last two years, membership has increased, partially due to the Trump administration.
Growth ahead
The group has plans to keep growing, especially in North County and farflung areas of San Diego. Before meetings moved to virtual options during the pandemic, most businesses were situated in downtown and mid-city San Diego.
Business leaders gather at the (Doing) Business For Good Summit on Wednesday, March 4 at the University of San Diego in Linda Vista. (Photo by Natalie Chiles Photography/Business for Good)They also anticipate a return of brick-and-mortar members who fell away during the pandemic. During that period, when many businesses had to prioritize survival over dues, membership dropped to the mid-40s, according to Knab.
“The times do matter. It makes us shine brighter,” Lin said. While watching EPA regulations roll back, BFG gives her hope for a better world. “It’s the one place where I’m like, okay, I feel like we can do it.”
That membership trend accelerated in the past two months, reaching 140 members by Monday, as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce was rocked by controversy over posting a job listing for ICE detainment center guards.
BFG, meanwhile, was conducting Know Your Rights training for employers and the community. “I think the difference between our groups is becoming more apparent,” Kumar said.
An alternate business voice
Lin described BFG as providing an alternate lens to debates framed as business vs. labor.
“Electeds want to do right by the people, but they feel like their hands are tied. So we get to be that organization that unties their hands,” Lin said.
The sheer size and scope of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce frequently made it the sole business voice in those debates. The chamber has a rightward bent and is represented by CEO Chris Cate, the last Republican elected to the San Diego City Council.
BFG provides cover for elected officials so they can pass pro-worker and green policies without being labeled anti-business.
Knab does not want BFG to be framed as a foil to the regional Chamber of Commerce, which has 2,500 members, paid staff and lots more funding. In 2025, BFG’s advocacy all happened through member volunteers while the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC spent $100,000 in support of Republican John McCann’s race for county supervisor.
Multi-disciplinary artist Ramel Wallace opens the (Doing) Business For Good Summit on Wednesday, March 4 at the University of San Diego in Linda Vista. (Photo by Natalie Chiles Photography/Business for Good)Yet the scrappy volunteer-run nonprofit notched some recent wins on policies the chamber opposed, like raising the hospitality minimum wage.
“Business for Good helped show that fair wages are not anti-business … They also demonstrated that responsible businesses understand a simple truth: when workers thrive, our entire community thrives,” said Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who crafted the wage hike. “Their support helped demonstrate that raising wages is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for our local economy.”
To Knab, this change in narrative around issues like the minimum wage fulfills his founding goal: Demonstrating that the business community is not a monolith. There are business owners that care about the planet and people and profit, not just maximum profit.
Or as Kumar put it, they are humans first, then business owners.
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