New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Go Local For the Holiday!

Register for Food, Glorious Food Biz! at the Los Angeles Federal Reserve on December 3. Learn more about the Women Entrepreneurs Symposium and our closing keynote, Evan Kleiman of KCRW’s ‘Good Food’.

  • Go Local for the Holidays – op-ed campaign
  • Grab Bag Webinar – 3 Totally Unrelated, but Interesting Items (rescheduled) Register for the webinar.
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes the BALLE Fellowship, North America’s only fellowship dedicated solely to advancing the local economy movement. Deadline is December 15, 2013.

Go Local for the Holidays

shift your shopping localIt’s that time of the year to make those lists and check them twice. For my family, the holidays come early with Thanksgivukkah. I’m going local this holiday season to honor the CAMEO spirit.

Part of CAMEO’s ‘going local’ efforts is to launch a local op-ed campaign. I have drafted an op-ed that touts the benefits of shopping local for the holiday season. Now, we need your participation! Not only will you be helping local businesses, you’ll get free PR for your org and a clip to send your funders.

  1. Google your hometown paper.
  2. Find out their process for submitting an op-ed.
  3. Download the Go Local op-ed template.
  4. Edit appropriately.
  5. Submit and copy me.
  6. Follow up a week later.
  7. Send me a link when it’s published.

Please contact me for any questions or help. If you live in an area with a large population that has more than one media outlet, let me help coordinate your efforts.

In addition, I’m gathering a listing of your shop local guides for the 2013 Holiday Season. The first one came in this week from Legal Services for Entrepreneurs, a project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Send me yours and I’ll post it.

Other Campaigns That Promote Local and Independent Businesses

  • Shift Your Shopping
  • Take the pledge at Independent We Stand
  • Find local bookstores at IndieBound
  • Shop local on Small Business Saturday
  • Make one purchase of $50 in 3 stores with the 3/50 Project
  • For the benefits and impacts of buying local, visit our October 10th post Must Know: DIY Economies = Economic Growth.

    Grab Bag Webinar (rescheduled)

    Over the last month, I’ve come across several resources and opportunities for you and your clients, so I’ve gathered them together into a webinar. Register for the webinar on Friday, November 22 @ 11:00am to learn about the following.

    • John Kennedy from Mobile Citizen will talk about their program to expand high-speed broadband access through low-cost mobile internet solutions for non-profit organizations and their clients.
    • Bernadette Abel, from Thank You Small Business and Silver Lining, will explain the Thank You Small Business movement and their new matchmaker wishlist for businesses (e.g. a business posts something that they need and someone who can meet that need responds.)
    • Gene Kahn, from Great Kolor for Nonprofits will talk about the opportunities and possibilities to do outdoor advertising of your services (it’s not as much as you may think.)

    Register for the webinar.

    The Goodies

    New opportunities for trainings, 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!

    Free Webinar: Friedman and Associates host Improving Financial Performance and Mission Impact Join them for an in-depth webinar that takes you through a self-assessment of your loan fund operations. Register for the webinar on November 13, 2013 at 11:00 am PT // 2:00 pm ET.

    For Your Clients: BBVA Compass launched its Great Ideas for Small Business contest on Facebook. The competition provides a platform for small business owners to showcase their inventiveness while earning a chance to win one of two $10,000 prizes to help fuel business expansion. To participate, qualifying small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses need to submit their ideas via a contest app located on the BBVA Compass Facebook page. Entry Deadline November 14, 2013.

    Fellowship Opportunity: The ELM (squared) Fellowship – offered by FIELD in partnership with the Capital One Foundation – supports the development of emerging leaders in the microbusiness development field. FIELD announces that the Requests for Application for its second class of Fellows, is now available online. Applications are due November 15, 2013.

    Micro-business in Action: Stacey Sanchez, our board president, will be featured at KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum in a discussion entitled “Micro-business Means Business” on November 20, 2013. Learn more and RSVP. Members can set up a table. Please email me for more information.

    Free Webinar: Bank of America Charitable Foundation offers a free monthly webinar to nonprofit leaders. Their next one is Engaging Influential and Affluent Volunteers for Fundraising and Board Leadership on Thursday, November 21, 2013 from 11:00am-12:00pm PT // 2:00 pm-3:00 pm ET. Learn more and register for this non-profit fundraising webinar.

    Farm Finance Expo: California FarmLink host’s their annual Farm Finance Expo on December 12, 2013 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, 3333 3rd Avenue, Sacramento. Panels will include lenders, farmers and trainers who will discuss farm operating, infrastructure and land loans; sources of capital; preparing loan applications; and building, maintaining and repairing credit. Register for the Farm Finance Expo.

    Fellowship Opportunity: The BALLE Fellowship is North America’s only fellowship dedicated solely to advancing the local economy movement, and where other programs focus on individual social entrepreneurs trying to scale single enterprises, we focus on local economy connectors – people who each represent, convene, and influence communities of hundreds of community entrepreneurs. Deadline is December 15, 2013.

    Funding Opportunity: The CDFI Fund announced the opening of its FY 2014 round of Financial and Technical Assistance Programs, anticipating up to $191 million in awards (subject to the passage of appropriations for FY 2014). The application deadline is midnight, December 23, 2013. Learn more about the CDFI FY 2014 Funding Round and download the application.