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

Capital Access:CalFORS report, New Source

In this week’s Must Know

  • CalFOR: A Guide to Access to Capital for Small and Micro-business in California
  • ShadeFund: New Capital for Natural Resource Based Businesses
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs. This week’s highlight is webinars, webinars, webinars on everything from new capital to new grants to opportunities for your clients to board governance.

CalFOR: A Guide to Access to Capital

In December 2011, Glenda Humiston, the California Director for the U.S.D.A. Rural Development, convened eighty leaders from financial institutions, economic development organizations and government agencies in order to explore how to improve access to capital for California’s small businesses. The group, California Financial Opportunities Roundtable (CalFOR), is part of a statewide initiative supporting development of regional industry clusters to provide jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, business growth, and public and private sector investment in value-chain infrastructure in order to build sustainable communities throughout California.

Claudia was appointed to chair the working group on local investing in the broad sense. The taskforce recommended actions that would facilitate capital to locally owned businesses, using intermediary platforms such as crowd-funding sites, nonprofit lenders and non-accredited private investors. Claudia’s participation, along with other CAMEO members, ensured that micro-business is seen as an integral piece of the economic growth strategy for California.

The result is a CalFOR Handbook. Read more about how micro fits into the CalFORS effort on our websites.

ShadeFund: New Capital for Natural Resource Based Businesses

Join CAMEO and ShadeFund for a free webinar to learn about a new capital source for natural resource based businesses. Green micro enterprises are critical to the development of vibrant communities, resilient economies, and healthy environments. Unfortunately, these businesses – whether they are a community sponsored farm or a wood products company using sustainable lumber – find it tough to raise the affordable capital they need to grow, especially in today’s economic climate.

ShadeFund is a national, web-based microloan program (up to $50,000) for green entrepreneurs who use farmland or forestland responsibly. We invite you to participate in a webinar to learn how California microlenders can work together with ShadeFund to ensure that California’s green innovators have access to the capital they need to grow.

Register for the webinar to be held on Thursday, September 27, 2012 from 2:00-3:00 pm PT.

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!

Make A Note: We moved upstairs. Our new suite is 715. Please change your address books.

Helpful Info: 5 Ways to Help (or Hurt) Your Credit Score – nuts and bolts of credit scores from USAA.

Grant Opportunity: The AFI Resource Center will hold a series of webinars to help prospective grantees prepare for the 2013 application cycles. These webinars will cover the basics of planning, applying, and developing resources for an AFI project. See the calendar to find out more. The first webinar, Planning an AFI project, is on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 11:00am PT // 2:00pm ET. The winter deadline is January 25, 2013.

Free Teleconference: Join Small Business Majority for a free conference call on September 17, 2012 at 10:00-10:45am PT //1:00-1:45pm ET, with White House Council on Environmental Quality Chief of Staff, Mike Boots. He will update you on the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory process and how pending standards might impact your small businesses. These standards include a host of provisions included in the Clean Air Act. You must register to receive the call-in information.

Free Webinar: Roots for Success – Teaching Environmental Literacy to Underserved Entrepreneurs. Eager to help your clients “go green” but need to build staff capacity and skills in green entrepreneurship? Then join Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes who will present an environmental literacy and job readiness curriculum that provides underserved individuals with the knowledge and skills they need to secure good green jobs, develop green small businesses and improve conditions in their communities. Register now for the webinar on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT.

Free Webinar: AEO presents How the Federal Government Can Be the Best Market for Microbusiness on Thursday, September 20, 2012 from 10:00-11:00am PDT // 1:00-2:00pm EDT. The U.S. Government is the largest consumer of goods and services in the world. Even in the face of severe budget cuts, it is the biggest single market for small businesses. This webinar will cover how to tap into that market successfully and avoid the pitfalls. Register to save your spot.

Free Webinar: Friedman Associates hosts Getting the Governance You Deserve! on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 from 11:00am-12:00pm PDT // 2:00-3:00pm EDT. A critical piece of the “sustainability puzzle” is leadership, especially your Board of Directors. But how do you encourage more active board engagement? In this free webinar, we will take you through a dynamic process to assess the health and role of governance in your organization and obtain more meaningful engagement. We will discuss how to create an operations plan for stronger governance and the creation of your Board Policies Manual – your playbook for effective governance. We will also give you tools to get started and recommend a plan of action. Register for the webinar.

Archived Webinar: Independent Sector hosted a webinar, Lobbying – Just Do It (Legally), which presented information on lobbying rules for charities and foundations. You can listen and download the powerpoint. (You may have to register.)

Archived Webinar: Learn about KIMCO Realty’s KIMCO Entrepreneurs Year Start (KEYS) Program- an incubator program for entrepreneurs that offers one year of free rent and business counseling. Watch and listen to the webinar. Download the Powerpoint for the KIMCO Business Incubation and Free Rent Webinar.

Archived Webinar: Friedman and Associates presented Green Microenterprise for Latinos and Native Americans, how small business CDFIs are helping Native Americans and Latinos capture opportunities in the Green Economy.

Take Action: Two important programs expire on September 27, 2012. The refinance provision of the U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loan program allows small business owners to refinance performing commercial mortgages with longer-term, below-market, fixed interest rates afforded by the SBA 504 program. The First Mortgage Lien Pooling (FMLP) program creates a secondary market where lenders can re-sell a portion of SBA 504 first mortgage loans, allowing them to increase their liquidity and capacity to make more small business loans. Sign the petition to save them.

Renaissance Online Business Prep Class: Attention service-starved areas, the webinar-based classes are scheduled from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. PST one evening a week for 12 consecutive weeks, with two optional 30-minute individual telephone consultations. Clients are expected to participate in every webinar and complete about 3 hours of homework weekly. The next one starts on September 29, 2012. Learn more and register.

Bay Area Office space: Renaissance Marin has two nice offices that they want to fill with compatible CAMEO members and/or lawyers, accountants, etc. that provide services to entrepreneurs. There is a corner office for $850 per month and an office right next to it for $650 per month that includes receptionist service, wifi and an opportunity to hold forums and seminars to provide information and promote services. Contact Boku Kodama by email or phone at 415.755.1115.

For Your Clients: CARAT offers free online trainings for small businesses through December. Check out their calendar.