In this week’s Must Know
- CAMEO-Kiva Collaboration Launched!
- Question of the Week: Will You Invest in Your Own Backyard?
- The Goodies: This week’s highlight is our Appropriations hearing for AB 152 is on Wednesday, April 10. Please send letters if you haven’t (scroll down for instructions.)
CAMEO-Kiva Collaboration Launched!
On Tuesday, CAMEO and Kiva announced a collaboration that will bring crowdfunded microloans to more small businesses in California. Congratulations to the three CAMEO members – Fresno CDFI, PACE and Working Solutions – who were the first to participate in this project. Thanks to all the staff of all organizations and our Kiva partners who made the launch a success.
CAMEO’s network of microlenders serve those who cannot receive bank support to start or expand their businesses, and Kiva’s crowdfunding platform provides access to those shut out of conventional business loan products. Each microlender identifies potential borrowers, provides them with business advising services, administers the loan, and posts their profiles on kiva.org. Growing the region’s micro-business sector is a key component for job growth and building a new economy.
Businesses aren’t creating enough jobs and government employment’s been cut back. Do it yourself! Create your own job, start your own business. It’s these very small, micro-businesses that are the future of our economy. — Claudia Viek
Check out op-eds about the CAMEO-Kiva collaboration:
- “Economic recovery: Fueling the 99 percent of businesses is what’s needed to create jobs,” San Jose Mercury News
- “Salam Nalia: Invest in your backyard,” Fresno Bee
And the two radio pieces from San Francisco stations KCBS and KGO. Fresno had two television cameras at their event and we’ll be sending along those links.
You can read all about the launch, find borrowers to invest in, and learn more about the collaboration on our blog
Question of the Week
To help bring attention and support to these deserving businesses and the agencies that support them, we created the CAMEO Lending Team on kiva.org. By joining the team you will receive notices when CAMEO’s lenders have posted a new loan, get updates on those that have been funded, and help build a support network for this project. The CAMEO Lending Team will help spread the word about the CAMEO-Kiva project and be a great way for those new to Kiva and the crowdfunding process to learn and participate. So the question is…
‘Will you invest in your own backyard, support local micro-business development, and join the CAMEO Lending Team?’
Let us know on CAMEO’s Facebook page if you join the team. Please share your thoughts. If you have an issue that you’d like to bring up for discussion, please let us know.
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 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!
Save the date for the Annual CAMEO member meeting in Sacramento on June 5-6.
Take Action: Our Appropriations hearing for AB 152 is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10. Our target for outreach is members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. If your assembly member is on the committee, and you haven’t sent a letter of support, then please do so and copy me. Thanks!
2013 Women in Leadership Conference: The Berkeley-Haas School of Business hosts Path-Bending Leadership – the type of leadership that helps drive business towards a better, more sustainable, healthier, and more just future. The conference offers opportunities to hear from and connect with women leaders who have achieved both personal and professional success. Register for the conference on Saturday, April 6, 2013 from 8:30am – 5:00pm at the Berkeley-Haas School of Business.
CDFI Re-Certification: The CDFI Fund has extended the deadline for filing certification or re-certification applications for certain groups from April 1 to April 8, 2013(read the Fund’s full notice). The stated reason for the extension is the fact that the Fund’s website has been inaccessible off and on late last week and through yesterday.
Free Webinars: Opportunity Finance Network hosts Scaling Up Microfinance, a series of ten, free technical assistance webinars from April to October 2013. The goal of the CDFI Fund’s Scaling Up Microfinance Capacity Building Initiative is to create jobs, build assets, and reduce poverty by scaling microfinance operations. The first topic is Innovative Business Models to Scale Microfinance on April 9, 2013 at 11:00am PT. Find a full list of topics and webinars as well as registration information.
Healthcare Info: Thanks to Small Business Majority for healthcare resources. Small business owners and the self-employed need to know how the Affordable Care Act will bring down costs, create a greater choice of insurance options, and the opportunities it offers to expand coverage. Also there is a teleconferences to help answer questions you or your clients may have on April 18.
Healthcare News: “The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposal to delay critical requirements for small business health insurance exchanges in some states is a disappointment to Small Business Majority and millions of small businesses. It’s a letdown to small business owners and their employees looking forward to robust, competitive exchanges in 2014. [Small Business Majority] hopes this proposal is recognized as counterproductive and is abandoned. That said, there’s a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating about what the rule would actually mean. We want to set the record straight.
AEO Conference: Let us know if you are going so we can invite you to the CAMEO member dinner. If not, we’d love to see you there! Tilt Forward is May 5-8 in St. Louis. If you’re not an AEO member, CAMEO members receive a $75 discount with the code SMA2013. If you’re an AEO member, registration fees are 50% of the full conference price – another reason to join the national network. CAMEO can offset some of the costs for this conference; contact Shufina English. Three pre-conference sessions are being offered in coaching skills, designing a revolving microloan fund, and rural policies and programs. Early bird prices are still available.
Economic Development Conference: California Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA)’s annual teaching and learning conference is in San Francisco on May 9 at the Hilton. Registration fees are $75 for members and $90 for non-members Scholarships are available, contact CAMEO for information.
Public Banking Conference 2013: Funding the New Economy will take place in San Rafael, California on June 2-4. They will explore one of the core foundations of successful economies around the world: a distributed network of public banks that operate in the public interest of each respective community. It starts off with a Conversation among Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone magazine), Birgitta Jonsdottir (Member of Icelandic Parliament), Ellen Brown (author of Web of Debt), and Gar Alperovitz.