| 2025 has proven to be a year of overwhelming information. From ever-changing economic policy creating significant supply chain, pricing, and consumer uncertainty to rapidly advancing AI technologies flooding communication platforms. 2025 has been a wild ride and yet, we’ve heard stories of remarkable resilience from our small business community. Our purpose at Bricks Need Mortar is to facilitate and support collaboration and innovation amongst brick and mortar small businesses. We work to raise the visibility of each participating business and this community as a whole, through advocacy with policy makers, in partnership with other organizations and community organizations and directly to consumers with marketing. We work to forge a community of practice by facilitating connection through our Shop Talks and through engagement in numerous forums to ensure that the brick and mortar small businesses that make Portland inspiring are seen, heard and represented. Below are key efforts and accomplishments where Bricks Need Mortar served this community. 1.- Launched 2025 with New Office of Small Business Shop Talk We invited Mitch Daugherty, manager of the new Office of Small Business (OSB) to our first Shop Talk meeting of the year to hear the concerns and needs of our brick and mortar small businesses. We learned about OSB’s mission, purpose and offerings for Portland’s small businesses. We continue to work closely with Portland’s OSB to ensure that Portland’s brick and mortar’s receive access to all available resources. 2.- Lobbying for Small Business Support for Extreme Weather Events For the past 2 years, Bricks Need Mortar has worked to address the negative impacts of extreme weather events on our brick and mortar small business community. BNM organized a group of small business owners to testify in support of HB 2125, a bill that would make it easier for small business employees to access unemployment in response to extreme weather events. 3.- Pulse Check Shop Talk with Travel Portland We worked with Travel Portland to cohost a retail session to learn more about Travel Portland’s efforts to support retail. In break out groups, we captured needs and ideas to inform our partnership with Travel Portland and how to best support the small brick and mortar community with available resources. 4.- Maker Retail Tour Seeking to amplify Portland’s unique maker community and its significance in the Portland narrative and economy, we partnered with Travel Portland’s Visitor Center to organize and produce a Maker Tour pilot. In attendance were Travel Portland Visitor Center staff, Downtown sidewalk ambassadors and concierges on a tour of iconic maker businesses: The Joinery, Oblation Press + Papers, Orox Leather, and New Deal Distillery. We will continue with our next Maker Retail Tour in 2026. 5.- Social Media Best Practice Workshop Small Shops Big Heart ’s social media strategist, Jo Ann Lorraine, presented best practices for social media planning and strategy. View the presentation materials and/or the recorded replay here. 6.- Upleveled Small Shops Big Hearts Marketing We’ve updated our Small Shops Big Hearts social media strategy to ensure more effective amplification of our small business community and Bricks Need Mortar members. We’re highlighting members with dedicated reels and neighborhood carousels. Additionally, we’re extending further reach of member content by sharing their posts and reels to IG stories. 7.- #pdxunites partnership with Unitus CCU turns 5 We continue to work with Unitus CCU to amplify the importance of our small businesses with weekly giveaways of $100 gift certificates throughout the year and multiple weekly giveaways doing the holiday season. This year Unitus CCU stepped up to support giveaways in conjunction with our Portland Hometown Pride Holiday campaign. 8.- Portland Hometown Pride Seizing on Portlanders’ massive rejection of the “hell hole” narrative, BNM created the Portland Hometown Pride campaign to further inspire Portlanders to choose to shop small and local this holiday season. In addition to partnering with Unitus CCU with special giveaways, we partnered with Travel Portland on a series of collaboration reels to highlight No Sales Tax neighborhood shopping adventures. 9.- Shop + Stay Portland Holiday Our team responded to the challenging economic realities presented in the “doom loop report” by creating a campaign leveraging our sales tax free status to attract visitors to Portland to do all their holiday shopping. We partnered with Travel Portland, Prosper Portland, Unitus CCU, Lime, and local hotels to designate Portland as THE West Coast shopping destination. 10.- We Are Here Turns 6 Over the past 6 years we’ve conducted surveys to provide small businesses with peer data and use that data to advocate for this community in pursuit of public policy and healthy environment essential to the success of your business. Our next survey will be out soon. Make sure your voice is heard. 11.- Launched Bricks Need Mortar Substack In order to advance the needs of our brick and mortar community with innovative strategies to support Main Street, we launched the Bricks Need Mortar substack. Providing thought leadership, we offer keen observations on economic realities and provide reasonable and achievable remedies so policymakers and other stakeholders can gain a better understanding of the importance of this community and work towards delivering what this community needs. 12.- Discover the Heart of Portland Small Shop guide Turns 5 We created and produce Portland’s singular evergreen shopping guide highlighting our city’s small and independent shops. Made possible through our partnership with Morel Ink, we print 20K copies distributed at Travel Portland’s Visitor Center, Travel Oregon’s Visitor Center at PDX airport, participating small businesses, area hotels and with other partners. These guides are a community tool to circulate consumers throughout Portland to explore our incredible, diverse and unique retail shops. |
| WWe are extremely proud of this important work, learning from what works and building upon those efforts. In 2026 we will further our engagement with policy makers, local, regional, State and Federal. There is a lot at stake and we plan to build further partnerships to improve the environment where small businesses operate. We will continue to push for greater efforts to keep crime trending downward, encourage policies that promote more equitable economic opportunities for our small, brick and mortar businesses and to encourage more innovative efforts to activate empty storefronts and draw shoppers into downtown and throughout the city. We look forward to returning in the New Year to work beside you to make Portland a place where small businesses and this community can thrive. Wishing you a peaceful, happy and healthy end of the year!  Sarah and The Bricks Need Mortar Team |