Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is finding a way to stay cool! Be sure to check on your employees and neighbors and from our friends at Avista please work to conserve electricity especially between 1-8pm. 

This is the week – June 30 – our official state reopening. I want to take a moment to say thank you to our Board, our staff, our partners, our elected leaders, our employers and their employees, and to our investors and members. It has been a challenging fifteen months that has impacted each of us differently, however our collective grit, passion and commitment to each other and this community has gotten us here. And it is going to take that same grit, passion, and commitment to move our community through recovery, which looks different for everyone too. We are committed to keep doing our part and look forward to working alongside all of you on the path ahead.

Stay cool, stay healthy, lead boldly, and continue to spread kindness. Remember, Together We’re Greater! 

This week, ArtsFund, in partnership with the Washington State Department of Commerce, begins distributing $10.78 million in recovery grants to 702 nonprofits in 34 counties throughout the state. The Nonprofit Community Relief (NCR) grant program is designed to provide critical funding to nonprofit arts, cultural, science, and heritage organizations; neighborhood associations; sports and recreation nonprofit groups; and veterans service organizations impacted by the pandemic. Just under 50 agencies in Spokane received over $500,000 in funding to help with COVID recovery. Communities with a strong creative economy are more resilient and better positioned for the new economy.

We continue to make the push for vaccination on our path to reopening. We have partnered with the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, Association of Washington Business (AWB) and the Washington State Department of Commerce to administer the “Give Business a Shot in the Arm” program by providing $50 gift cards to encourage vaccination. A total of 15 vaccination clinics are planning to distribute 4000 gift cards prior to the end of the month.

While business closures are never good news, we are receiving some positive news as we assess the impact of COVID, and the shutdowns, on the Spokane economy. Numbers are coming out regarding small business closures between January 2020 to January 2021 through tracktherecovery.org. Spokane is at 17%, while similar sized counties like Pierce and Clark are at 31% and 51% respectively and Washington State is at 38%. Kootenai County is at 13%. While we may never know why our economy performed better than others, we believe two factors are key. First, the aggressive effort by local governments to get CARES dollars into the community for business relief and the second being the high percentage of small businesses in our area in the manufacturing and health services sector, both of which held their own during COVID. 

Our team attended the ribbon cutting ceremony at CarbonQuest last week at the Spokane Business and Industrial Park in Spokane Valley. CarbonQuest is developing equipment to sequester carbon from the operation of natural gas fired boilers. They are deploying the first system to New York City. In a presentation to Ignite NW, founder Dave Curry noted that the system is exceeding expectations and that they expect a rapid expansion to occur in the next six months. GSI is working to make sure that expansion occurs right here. Our friends Lisa Brown, Department of Commerce Director and Mayor Ben Wick, City of Spokane Valley also attended the event. 

Are you looking to support your employees’ education? Need someone to help guide this process? Be an employer of choice. We invite you to connect with our Education Attainment Navigator to see how we can help. Our Navigator carry’s the load – it’s a free service and just part of what we do. Contact Jodi Brant today!

Early learning makes a compounded impact to our workforce and regional employers. Through generous funding by Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER), the community partners that developed hELLO Math materials have developed hELLO STEM. This resource, available in Spanish and English, focuses on promoting language-rich engineering and design opportunities within the context of a child’s home and everyday life. The materials are printed and ready for distribution through community organizations and events, such as Valleyfest in September. They are also available through the website www.helloello.org. 

Are you looking for career connected learning programs for your student this summer or fall? Check out Career Connect Washington’s Career Directory that houses various levels of opportunities across the state. If a program is missing, please be sure to add it!

Last week President Biden signed off on a bipartisan infrastructure package. This is a critical step in the ongoing negotiations. The package represents the largest infrastructure investment in American history. Here are the details on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and we continue to track developments closely.  

Last week the June state quarterly revenue forecast was released. State revenue is up $838M for the current 19-21 biennium and almost $1.8B for the 21-23 biennium which starts July 1. You can read more on the Washington Research Council’s blog.

Every year GSI partners with the Journal of Business to bring you the annual Connect magazine, which is designed and built by GSI and published by the Journal of Business as a supplement in the late September issue. If you are interested in advertising in this annual magazine, check out the media kit. It provides answers to your questions, pricing, and everything else to make your advertising decision!

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS HAS RETURNED! Safely dive back into the world of in-person networking while connecting with local host businesses. This is a FREE event for all investors and we hope to see you at either the August or October event. Want to host? Contact [email protected] to learn more.

Connect with Us! You can look up all GSI team members from our website; we would love to connect.

Did you Know? As a GSI investor you can ‘Post a Job’ for FREE! 

Refer: Know of an organization that should invest at GSI? Participate in our Refer a Friend program. Reach out to Elizabeth Mills, [email protected] with your referral.

Welcome: Join us as we celebrate our three new investors in May: MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions; Spokane Corporate Housing; and WaFd Bank.

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