The nonprofit organization WESST is strategically restructuring to serve businesses and startups throughout New Mexico well into the future. Much like the advice WESST consultants give business owners facing changes in the marketplace, WESST is responding to a volatile nonprofit-funding environment.

For 35 years, WESST has been a champion for New Mexico’s small businesses, providing loans, workshops, and business mentoring.  This year has brought significant challenges for nonprofit organizations, including cuts and freezes to critical federal and state funding that directly support organizations like WESST. To continue serving the entire state, WESST is consolidating operations, streamlining services, reducing overhead, and enhancing team collaboration.

“By restructuring, WESST will be able to reduce our organizational dependence on federal funding,” said Lindsey Kay, WESST President and CEO, in a press announcement. “We are evolving, as is needed for sustainability, and looking toward the future.” 

Effective October 1, 2025, WESST’s Rio Rancho and Santa Fe offices will close, and those clients will be served by the Albuquerque center. Similarly, Roswell operations will be moved to Hobbs. Offices in Farmington, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces will remain open, giving WESST four offices and video conferencing from which to serve businesses throughout the state.

The restructuring aims to increase the sustainability of WESST and allow it to continue serving entrepreneurs and people who want to start or grow a business — including women, veterans, and other underserved populations. In 2024 alone, WESST helped entrepreneurs start 94 businesses, which created 346 new jobs. It provided 4,276 client consultations, and 4,213 people participated in its training sessions. Businesses served by WESST retained 1,652 jobs.

“Small businesses are the backbone of New Mexico’s economy and the heartbeat of our communities, and they will continue to be the center of the work we do at WESST,” said Kay.  

“We go beyond traditional services to meet the needs of our communities—from supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs and rural business owners to addressing critical social challenges like the childcare crisis through small business development,” she said. WESST was one of the first business support organizations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by offering low-interest emergency loans, free workshops, and business consulting that helped New Mexico small businesses survive the crisis.

These are the services provided by WESST, and this is how it helps small businesses get started. Contact WESST today.