Ms. CAMEO Goes to DC
Taxes and Women’s Business Ownership, a survey
The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes two downloads to celebrate Women’s History Month: 1) the National Women’s Business Council new research report – Social Entrepreneurship Amongst Women and Men in the United States; and 2) McKinsey’s “The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in the United States.”
Ms. CAMEO Goes to DC
A few weeks ago, Claudia and Jane Campbell of WIPP, published an op-ed in
The Hill – “
Investing in women entrepreneurs nets a huge return on investment.” Last week, Claudia was in DC advocating for the cause. She met with the House Small Business Committee, both sides of the aisle are interested in women’s entrepreneurship and want to work for small business.
Claudia had positive meetings at the SBA with Dan Upham, program director for the Microenterprise Development program and Manny Hidalgo, Director of Capital Access. She has known Mr. Hidalgo for a long time and he is a champion of microbusiness and LMIs. They assured her that the RFPs for PRIME would be going out soon. She also met with Tom Curry and his staff at the OCC, where she received a warm reception. She advocated for strong CRA guidelines and inclusive lending in their crafting of any fintech charter.
This week, Claudia’s back in DC for the AEO board meeting and also attended WIPP’s International Women’s Day event in which Linda McMahon, the new SBA Administrator, talked about how the SBA is excited to be a partner to help women business owners succeed. The SBA will continue to focus on capital, contracting and counseling. She said that their goal is to make sure that women receive prime contracts as well as subcontracts.
Take Action: Claudia is a tireless advocate for increased funding for our sector; we also need your help. CAMEO joins AEO to ask its members and supporters to
call their senators and representatives and urge them to support Fiscal Year 2018 microbusiness programs. In particular, three cornerstone programs that provide critical support to entrepreneurs, especially in economically distressed areas, are being threatened with cuts: the Treasury’s CDFI program, the SBA Microloan Program, and the SBA PRIME program. AEO developed a
script and draft email. Your voice is critical at this time!
You can read AEO’s blog post “The Budget Process: The Good, The Bad and The Exceedingly Complicated” for an explanation of what’s happening with FY2017 and FY2018 federal budgets.
However, support for the Microloan program in Congress does exist. On Monday, Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) introduced the
Microloan Modernization Act of 2017. This legislation raises lending caps on intermediaries from $5M to $6M and eliminates the 25/75 rule. It also requires an SBA study on microenterprise participation and a GAO study on microloan intermediary practices. CAMEO worked hard on this bill and will continue to work toward its passage.
And if that weren’t enough the House Republicans released their “
American Health Care Act“, the Obamacare repeal and replace bill.
Bloomberg summarizes the 123 page bill.
Because so much is going on in DC, I created a post “
Take Action To Support The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.” Take a moment and take action.
Taxes and Women’s Business Ownership, a survey
CAMEO is partnering with Women Impacting Public Policy and the Kogod Tax Policy Center at American University to research how women entrepreneurs use the U.S. tax code and how it impacts your business in order to determine whether it discriminates against women-owned firms.
WIPP and the Kogod Tax Policy Center are surveying women business owners like you nationwide to learn exactly how you use the tax code to complement research Kogod is performing to discover if women business owners are playing on a level playing field.
Please
take this survey. It will take less than five minutes and your answers could help us make a big difference for all women in business. The survey is free, your answers are anonymous, and you will not be asked for a donation.
Please consider 1) taking the survey if appropriate and 2) sending an email to your female clients to take the survey.
Thank you for making your voice heard!
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!
New Report: The National Women’s Business Council released
Social Entrepreneurship Amongst Women and Men in the United States.
Financial Coaching Best Practices: CFED is developing a Financial Coaching Design Guide that will compile lessons from the field to help practitioners develop and implement strong financial coaching programs. Please
complete this survey to build the knowledge base and increase the collective understanding of the financial coaching field! The Guide will be published in Summer 2018.
Small Business Lending: In June 2016 OFN launched Venturize, a digital public awareness and education campaign designed to inform small business owners about their financing options and help them prepare for the borrowing process. It’s now
available in Spanish.
Workforce and Micro: The California Workforce Association and California Workforce Development Board have joined forces with the California Community Colleges to facilitate a series of 17 conversations called –
Partnerships that Unlock Social Mobility. The remaining ones are in March and April in Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz/Monterey, Riverside, San Diego, Richmond, Santa Clara, Redding, Eureka and Napa. We urge you to attend and make the voice of entrepreneurship heard. Our goal is for local WIBs to partner with CAMEO members to provide training. Please
let us know if you are able to make it and what you’ve learned.
Rural Development Webinars: Tune in to two free webinar trainings with IEDC about the
challenges and opportunities for rural communities: Preserving our Stories – Opportunities for Heritage Tourism on
March 15, 2017, 7:00-8:30am PT // 10:00-11:30am ET and Maximizing the use of Federal and State Tools for Economic Development on
March 23, 2017, 7:00-8:30am PT // 10:00-11:30am ET.
For Your Clients: The next California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC) application period started
Monday, March 6, 2017, with more than $68 million in available tax credits. Businesses interested in applying can register to view a live webinar explaining the application process. This program is open to any business planning to create new full-time jobs in the state, regardless of size or location. The
deadline to submit applications is
Monday, March 27, 2017, at 11:59pm PT (Pacific Time). An informational webinars is on
March 16, 2017 (click on date for more info).
Grant Opportunity: AARP Foundation presents Work for Yourself@50+, a new initiative designed to help low- and moderate-income older adults explore opportunities to work for themselves and take the first steps toward successful self-employment. This initiative includes the “Five Simple Steps to Get You Started” toolkit, workshop, and interactive website. Eligible organizations can apply to host the workshop component. AARP Foundation is extending a special invitation to member organizations and contacts of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity to apply for the Work for Yourself@50+ initiative. Please use the
AEO Request for Applications link to find details regarding grantee expectations, support, timeline and eligibility. The application deadline is
March 17, 2017.
Free Webinar: Join ASBC for a webinar –
Regulations Do Work for Business! on
March 21, 2017 11:00am-12:00noon PT // 2:00-3:00pm ET.
Networking/Professional Development Event: Our colleagues from ASBC are hosting “How Re-Imagining Capitalism Can Inspire Both Personal and Large Scale Positive Change” on
Wednesday, March 22, 2017from 5:30 – 8:00 pm at Hanson Bridgett, 425 Market Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, California.
Advocacy Day: This year, OFN’s Advocacy Day will take place on
May 16–17, 2017. During Advocacy Day, your voice is needed to make the case to members of Congress and Administration officials about the
importance of funding for the CDFI Fund, the industry, and our communities.
Funding Opportunity: OFN announced their
NEXT Fund for Innovation, a pilot that will provide flexible capital in amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2 million to CDFIs with innovative ideas. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis now through
June 30, 2017. The fund is open to all qualifying CDFIs, including non-OFN Members and past NEXT Awards recipients.]]>
