ShadeFund offers 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.
Watch and listen to the webinar (41 minutes)
Download the Powerpoint for the ShadeFund Conservation Fund for Business Lending.
About the Presenters
Rick Larson joined The Conservation Fund in 2007 to assist with TCF’s natural resource-based business lending programs. As ShadeFund Director, he heads up ShadeFund’s lending activities nationwide, working with potential borrowers and preparing recommendations for the ShadeFund Loan Committee. He is also NC Program Director for the Natural Capital Investment Fund. The Conservation Fund’s business lending arm that provides patient capital to triple-bottom-line natural resource-based businesses in six Southeastern states.
Enrique Perez is a native of Rockville, Maryland, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied journalism, public relations and political science. He began working with The Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program) in 2010 as an intern, doing a range of activities, including marketing for rural partners; graphic and web design; and outreach. In 2011, Enrique signed on with ShadeFund and is now the program’s web community manager.
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