In this Must Know…
- Data Collection Demystified, A Webinar – Today
- Dealing with Disaster
- Take Action: District Meetings on Truth-in-Lending!
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight (well, kind of) is that the release of the RFP for the $20 million in state investment in small business development was not released this week as I stated last week. Stay tuned!
Data Collection Demystified, A Webinar – Today!
Register for Data Collection: Make the Case for Funding and Get It Right From Intake To Reporting – today – Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 2:00 pm.
It’s your favorite time of the year! Data Collection Time! If it’s not, why not? Your impact data proves your value to your funders and constituents and helps you to build the best organization possible. Fantastic!
The actual nuts and bolts of gathering data can be difficult if you don’t build them into your program from the beginning. To help you with this year’s data collection process, we’ve brought together the experts to explain the benefits of good data collection and demystify the process.
- Sharon Miller, CEO of Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, will illustrate the benefits that her organization has received from an emphasis on good data collection.
- Kate Shepherd, also from Renaissance, will explain how to incorporate data collection into your daily client support.
- Joyce Klein from FIELD at the Aspen Institute discusses what to do with that data when you’ve got it, and how your organization’s data can help make the case for the sector as a whole.
Register for Data Collection: Make the Case for Funding and Get It Right From Intake To Reporting on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 2:00 pm.
The webinar is right in time as the FIELD’s microTracker census opened this week!
The Role of Business Assistance in Disaster Recovery Efforts
Earlier this week, a friend posted gratitude to the volunteer fire department (including her husband) who held the line of fire on the corner of her property and thus saving her house and her animals. If you look at the California fire map, 13 active fires are burning in areas where many of you serve. Preparation is key to a quicker recovery – which is now familiar to some of our members who lived through last year’s devastating fires.
After the Thomas Fire and Montecito Debris Flows last winter, more than 60% of Santa Barbara businesses were forced to close during or after the disasters, some for longer than two months. More than 200 employees were laid off. Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) helped their local community with its expertise in entrepreneur training, consulting, and loans. They added staff and increased capacity to help impacted businesses rebuild their operations and be better prepared for future emergencies. To date, they have supported dozens of businesses and provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans:
- Supported 17 businesses with WEV emergency business loans
- Provided a total of $161,000 in emergency loans
- Deferred existing loan payments for 8 businesses
- Supported 31 businesses with one-on-one business consulting
Read more about “The Role of Business Assistance in Disaster Recovery Efforts” on our website.
While you’re there, read last week’s blog post – “Prosperity Now’s 2018 Scorecard: A Look At California’s Metro Areas” – a look at Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose.
Take Action: District Meetings on Truth-in-Lending!
We need you to take action!
State legislators are in the district until August 3, 2018. A bill that concerns us is working its way through the legislature. On the surface, SB 1235 is a great bill – a truth-in-lending bill for small business loans. However, along the way, it was amended in a way that will confuse small business borrowers as to their financing options, not make them more clear.
We are meeting with the author of the bill to see if he will entertain amendments and to bring it back to being a great bill. The outcome of that meeting will determine what our exact strategy will be, but for now, we are asking you to contact your assemblymembers today or tomorrow and set up a district meeting with them. Once you have, let us know and we will send you talking points and background information.
Here are some resources to help you prepare for your meeting:
- Find your California State Legislators
- Guide to Meeting with Legislators
- District Meeting How-to Webinar
You can also thank them for passing a state California budget that has a whole lot of good things included in it for local economic development including $23 million for small business technical assistance.
And one more action to take: CalNonprofits is on record urging the legislature not to pass AB 888 to extend these raffles until the Department of Justice conducts an audit of the practices and impacts of the last two years of 50/50 major league sports raffles. Please join CalNonprofits, the American Legion of California, and the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations in opposing this bill. (Click the link to add your organization’s name to the letter) by Monday, July 23, 2018.
Good news on policy: The Governor signed AB 1785 (Nazarian) Medi-Cal Eligibility, a bill which will exclude the principal and interest of a 529 savings plan in asset or resource tests to determine eligibility for Medi-Cal benefits.
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!
State Funding Update: The release of the RFP for the $20 million in state investment in small business development was not released on Monday, July 16, 2018, as I stated last week. Stay tuned!
Professional Opportunity: Nominations are open for OFN’s Board of Directors until July 20, 2018. Read a recap of their 7th annual Small Business Finance Forum.
Free Webinar: The Federal Reserve hosts “Opportunity Zones: Understanding the Potential of the new Community Development Tax Incentive” to drive long-term equity capital to distressed communities by providing tax benefits on investments in Opportunity Funds.
Professional Opportunity: If you work for a nonprofit and have student loans, you need to know about Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. PSLF forgives student loan debt for nonprofit or government employees after 120 qualifying payments (10 years’ worth), as long as they meet a number of additional requirements. CalNonprofits is hosting “How Nonprofit Staff Can Get Student Loan Forgiveness Webinar” on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 11:00am-12:00 pm PDT
Grant Opportunity: With the support of JPMorgan Chase, NALCAB – National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders will provide grants of $40,000 – $50,000, technical assistance, and training to up to ten non-profit organizations for a period of 18 months to develop and implement data- and community-driven action plans for equitable development. Plans will prevent involuntary displacement and increase access to wealth generating assets for low-income communities through strategies including, but not limited to, affordable housing and/or commercial real estate development, policy development and advocacy, affordable housing and/or small business lending, housing services and programs, small business development, and community engagement. Download the Request for Proposals: Equitable Neighborhood Development Planning. The deadline is August 5, 2018.
Funding Opportunity: Applications are open for AEO’s Tapestry Project. The project includes two opportunities: 1) Tapestry Project Innovation Registry (TPIR) will register your project to help broaden the reach of your organization’s work to funders, investors and other potential collaborators; and 2) the Tapestry Project Action Lab will support collaborative funding contracts, with awards of up to $50,000, organized around a shared business development objective that addresses the interlinkage of the three barriers for Black businesses reaching their potential. Click on the website for more details including informational webinars on July 23, July 26, and August 2. The deadline is August 7, 2018.
For Your (Young) Clients: BizWorld is hosting the Girlpreneur competition during the WorldWideWomen Girls’ Festival at Santa Clara University on Sunday, October 6, 2018. They are inviting girls ages 8-18 to apply to pitch their business ideas to our panel of expert judges and compete for the Grand Prize of $1,000! The application deadline is September 2, 2018.
Professional Conference: Join Prosperity Now’s 2018 Prosperity Summit on September 5-7, 2018 in Maryland.
Got Federal Funds: The US General Services Administration has changed their policies regarding the online System for Award Management. As of April 27th, all users must submit a notarized letter naming an Entity Administrator to the Federal Services Desk in order to activate their sam.gov registration. Any organization applying for federal or state funding through grants.gov is required to have a current registration with sam.gov in order to submit their application, so make sure to check your account! More information, including a template for the notarized letter, click the link.
New Report: The SBA Office of Advocacy Research release “Why Do Businesses Close“, using U.S. Census Bureau data, and found that over the last 25 years, about 7–9 percent of employer firms close every year and a slightly higher share open. Many reasons for closing are personal.
CAMEO Webinar: Technology is changing EVERYTHING. Including business assistance. Our members are having innovative responses to the changing landscape. Learn how several of your peers are developing products and services to respond to the rapid changes in the economy and society. Listen to the recording of “Tech Tools: Bringing Business Assistance into the Future.”
Uplifting Read: 7 hopeful things to remember from NonProfit AF.
Job Opportunities: Cutting Edge Capital, Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce, Loconomics, Small Business Majority, Alameda County SBDC, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, Greenlining, and Accion San Diego are hiring! Please check CAMEO’s job page for more information and other listings.