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Upcoming CAMEO Trainings; First Look at FY2017 Budget

Happy Valentine’s Day! CAMEO loves you!

Upcoming CAMEO Training

CAMEO has two upcoming trainings: Small Business Lending Landscape peer call and District Legislative Meetings for BBOR.

Small Business Lending Landscape peer call

OFN is offering a webinar series focused on growth and innovation for small business lenders. CAMEO will follow each session with dynamic peer group calls to digest and apply what was learned. Both CEOs and line staff can benefit from this rich training opportunity. OFN’s first webinar is today, February 11: Small Business Lending Landscape at 11:00am-12:30pm PT // 2:00-3:30pm ET.

As part of our MicroLending Academy, CAMEO will be holding peer calls a few days after the webinar to discuss how best to apply the OFN ideas to your organization. Join us on February 17 at 11:00am for a discussion on how your organizations can respond to the fast-growing online small business ‘lending’ environment.

District Legislative Meetings for BBOR


CAMEO is launching an educational campaign to inform California’s small business leaders and elected officials on what good capital looks like and the Small Business Borrower’s Bill of Rights. We’re asking all of our members to hold district meetings with their California state representatives during the March 18-25 break. We’ll follow up with meetings in Sacramento at our annual meeting. Read the full press release – CAMEO Launches Campaign For BBOR. This is an issue that your clients need to know about, whether or not you are a lender or business assistance provider.

Register for District Legislative Meetings for BBOR webinar on February 23, 2016 at 2:00pm PT.

Personal visits are highly effective ways of helping legislators understand your position or program. Legislators welcome visits from constituents. They want you involved, even though they are busy people. Arranging these meetings is relatively easy and the meetings themselves are inexpensive and convenient. This webinar will walk you through logistics of setting up the meeting, how to prepare, what to do afterwards, and ground you in the Small Business Borrower’s Bill of Rights.

President Obama’s FY2017 Budget

This week, President Obama presented the FY2017 budget to Congress – the final one of his administration. The SBA also published their budget justificationand performance report, which includes requested funding levels for FY17 and program metrics for FY15. The requests for FY2107 are as follows, (FY16 appropriations):

  • SBA Micro Lending – $44 Million ($35 million in FY16)
  • SBA Micro TA – $31 Million ($25 million in FY16)
  • SBA WBC Program – $16.7 Million ($17 million in FY16)
  • SBA SBDC Program – $115 Million ($117 million in FY16)
  • SBA PRIME – $0 ($5 milion in FY16)
  • CDFI Fund – forthcoming ($233.5 million in FY16)
  • Treasury CDFI Bond Guarantee Program* – $1 billion ($750 million in FY16)
  • USDA Rural Business Development Program formerly RBEG and RBOG) – forthcoming ($24 million in FY16)
  • USDA RMAP – forthcoming

For the most part, the FY 2017 budget request shows wins for CAMEO’s budget priorities. Most notably, SBA increased their request for the Microloan program lending authority to $44 million – up over 25% from last year’s request of $35 million. Also, the CDFI Bond Guarantee program came in at $1 billion in lending authority. The Administration decreased all resource partners — WBCs, SBDCs, and SCORE – by a total $2.5 million from all three. We don’t have a rationale from the SBA for the change and will work with the appropriators to increase the amount that the SBA requested. Also, as happened last year, SBA’s budget did not make a request for the PRIME program. However, PRIME is a priority and we will work with Congress to ensure that appropriators know the value of the PRIME program. We’ve fought and won this battle before and intend to do it again.

In addition to the budget request, SBA requested legislative changes to the Microloan program to eliminate the 25/75 rule and the 1/55th rule from the program’s statute. Specifically addressing the 25/75 rule, SBA cited microloan intermediaries need to provide “unconstrained” pre- and post-loan technical assistance. As for the 1/55 rule, during the first six months of a fiscal year, the SBA is restricted from putting more than 1/55th of available microloan funding into any given state. The SBA states “this restriction effectively delays deployment of microloan funds thereby limiting the availability of capital for small businesses regardless of the size of the state or the needs of the small business community.” SBA’s requests will be very helpful in our work to make legislative changes to the Microloan program.

CAMEO thanks Madison Services Group for all of their help in reaching our legislative goals in Washington, DC.

*See the goodies section for a webinar that explains the CDFI BGP.

The Goodies

New opportunities for training, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!

CDFI Fund Applications: The Department of Treasury announced that they are now accepting applications for the CDFI Fund. CDFI Certification Applications must be received by the CDFI Fund by February 12, 2016. Qualified Issuer Applications must be submitted by March 4, 2016. Guarantee Applications must be submitted by March 18, 2016. Friedman and Associates is accepting requests to write CDFI FA and TA applications.

Happy Valentine’s Day: To celebrate Working Solutions has a gift guide as may other organizations for local treats to show your love.

Free Webinar Series: OFN is offering a webinar series focused on growth and innovation for small business lenders. CAMEO will follow each session with dynamic peer group calls to digest and apply what was learned (see above). The first one takes place at 11:00am-12:30pm PT // 2:00-3:30pm ET, today – February 11: Small Business Lending Landscape. You can find more information and registration links to the rest of the series on our website – Small Business Financing Webinar Series.

Free Webinar: OFN is holding a webinar on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 10:00am PT // 1:00pm ET to discuss their new report: CDFI Collaborations: Keys to Success. This report looks at 12 different CDFI collaborations of varying sizes and purposes, identifies five factors that contribute to collaboration successes, and proposes a three-year strategy to promote more CDFI collaborations.

Free Webinar: The CDFI Bond Guarantee Program is an innovative federal credit program that offers credit-worthy certified CDFIs access to affordable long-term capital. Learn how this unique program incentivizes and empowers CDFIs to execute large-scale projects. Speakers will discuss the practical “nuts and bolts” of accessing the Bond Guarantee Program. Register for the webinar on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 12:00 pm PT // 3:00 pm ET.

Train the Trainer: Join Claudia at the 2016 SMALL BUSINESS EDUCATORS SYMPOSIUM, Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset on February 18-19, 2016 at The Westin – Los Angeles Airport, 5400 W Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045. This symposium is for anyone interested in infusing entrepreneurship into their curriculum: Hear from business experts what skills students will need as employees to help their businesses succeed and also what skills they will need to become future entrepreneurial leaders; hear from fellow educators who have already cracked the code on how to teach students the skills they will need; multiple professional intensive training opportunities will be available. Registration is $145. CAMEO does offer individual training help.

Small Business Stakeholder Roundtable: GoBiz will host a roundtable to give small business stakeholders (e.g. chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, federal, state and local technical assistance partners, small business owners and others) the opportunity to give input and feedback on small business issues and hear from special guests on economic development initiatives. Join GoBiz on Thursday, February 25, 2016, 10:00am-12:00noon at the Office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, 633 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles.

AEO National Conference: Save the date May 18-20, 2016 in Washington, DC to celebrate 25 years! EconoCon25 gathers actors in the small business space who impact America’s smallest businesses and underserved entrepreneurs — lenders, nonprofit and for-profit service providers, advocates and policy makers, entrepreneurs, funders and investors — for meaningful dialogue about how to innovate faster, partner smarter, and execute better. Early-bird registration rates are good for the month of February!

For Your Clients: The U.S. Small Business Administration has launched the registration for its 2016 Emerging Leaders executive-level training series for Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties. This is the fourth year the program has been held in Southern California and the second consecutive year that there will be two cohorts, one of only three SBA districts to do so. Sacramento area business owners may also participate. Rich Mostert of Valley Small Business Development Corporation will be teaching the class in Bakersfield.

WE Decide 2016: CAMEO has joined Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for their campaign – WE Decide 2016 – to engage women in business in the 2016 election. WE Decide 2016 is a nonpartisan, no cost collaboration with a focus on education and engagement. Leveraging insight, secure poll data and participant feedback, WE Decide 2016 will publish a Women in Business Priorities report prior to the national conventions to encourage political parties and their candidates to prioritize and discuss issues of significance to women entrepreneurs. Please take a moment to sign up your organization to become a WE Decide 2016 Supporter.

Non-Profit Technology Conference: If you’re interested in learning about how you and your organization can stay on top of technology trends – not to mention learn best practices, and get the support you need to use technology in a way that will truly fulfill your mission – then have a staff member or two attend the 2016 Nonprofit Technology Conference (16NTC). This year it’s in San Jose, California from March 23 – 25. Over 2,000 non-profit professionals will gather to share ideas, tactics, and strategies on using tech – in your communications efforts, as well as your programming. I’ll be going. If you have any questions about the conference, reach out to the organizers at NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network. Don’t forget that we offer professional development assistance.