A Commitment to Change: Reflecting on CGI 2009
It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) experience (my first). It isn’t the glitter and the glamour, though there is plenty of that, but the energy of 1,000, multiplied by a determination to address the issues of the world and the belief that meaningful change can be affected, one commitment at a time. That’s what lights the days and evenings of CGI for me.
Education, energy and climate change, global health, poverty alleviation, and a special focus on women and girls were all topics of impassioned, informed, and lively discussions that engaged private investors, NGOs, multinational corporations, policy makers and world leaders.
Those of us whose work is dedicated to economic empowerment found our thinking informed by those who understand that hunger, water, infrastructure and health are driving factors in success or failure; that women and girls face incomprehensible challenges, yet are a natural resource capable of changing the world.
(This short video does a great job of presenting the case for investment in women and girls.)
Regardless of the issue, the need to get essential programs to scale was always a point of commonality and of struggle. I listened to those whose work has touched hundreds and those whose programs reach hundreds of thousands. I heard a commitment to see that three million additional girls receive an education. (According to statistics shared by Jordan’s Queen Rania, the cost of getting these girls into school is $11 billion, which is what Americans spend on pets every three months.)
During all this, I couldn’t keep my thoughts from wandering to the microfinance field here in the U.S. Our numbers remain small, yet the impact on each borrower, his or her family, and the communities in which they live is large. Commitments are the promises of change at CGI. Our commitment, though not announced on the stage by Brad, Demi, Bill, or Hillary, is to focus on innovative ways to reach those microenterprises where small infusions of capital will unleash extraordinary power to change the world.
We have a great deal to be proud of and oh so much more to contribute.
The Story of Tanto Dulce Cafe
Monica's drawing of her cafe, Tanto Dulce
When ACCION USA borrower Monica Gonzalez designed the interior of her new Harlem café, she did so from a hospital bed. Monica was recovering from major emergency surgery in the months before the opening of Tanto Dulce (“So Sweet” in English), a dream which had been years in the making.
Eight years ago, Monica moved to the U.S. from Venezuela, where she had worked as a lawyer, in order to give her children better opportunities. Not knowing English, she found it difficult to secure a legal job, so she turned to her hobby: baking. After an apprenticeship and classes where she learned to make classic Italian desserts, Monica opened up a wholesale basement space from which she sold to local food trucks serving the Hispanic community.
ACCION USA gave Monica a loan to open up a storefront on Broadway in Harlem. However, she started having stomach problems around the same time. When they became too painful to ignore, she saw a doctor, who told her she would need to have surgery immediately. As her family and friends were completing the move into the Tanto Dulce space, Monica directed their efforts from her hospital recovery room, drawing pictures like the one above.
Monica’s unassuming demeanor hides a fierce entrepreneurial drive that is evidenced by her perseverance. In addition to continuing to sell wholesale goods from the basement space, she is taking more classes to broaden her cooking repertoire so that she can open a wine bar one day.
On a recent visit, I found the tiny café full of both students and local patrons, all enjoying their late-morning snacks and coffees as studying as reggaeton radio music softly played in the background.
Check out a behind-the-scenes video here on our YouTube page!
Tags: baking, cafe, microcredit, pastry, small business, success stories, us microfinance, venezuela
Microfinance Week in Review, Week Ending September 25, 2009
What went on in microfinance and microenterprise development, week ending September 25, 2009
- SBA Lending on the Upswing (HispanicBusiness.com)
- Small Change: Billions of dollars and a Nobel Prize later, it looks like ‘microlending’ doesn’t actually do much to fight poverty (Boston Globe)
- Not poor enough (Opportunity Fund Blog)
Lofty Questions, Young Student
Teachable moments. Luz Gomez captured it well when she blogged recently about capitalizing on teachable moments. My opportunity came just over a week ago when a friend contacted me regarding a tour of ACCION USA. Since her nine-year old daughter had just read a special section in the New York Times about microfinance, she wanted to give her first-hand exposure. Now, as a fundraiser, I know that an individual’s propensity to give is shaped before the teenage years. So, of course, I wanted to show Amelia the power of microfinance to reinforce what I hoped would be a life-long commitment to economic development.
Martha's story of building a new life in the U.S. through self-employment illustrates the power of microfinance.
Amelia arrived on time (with mom in tow), prepared with a 4X6 note card of questions. Though we kept the conversation high level, we explored some pretty lofty subjects: sources of capital for entrepreneurs, the average ACCION USA loan size, uses for loan capital, typical client industries, and repayment rates. We also talked about individuals who might need an ACCION USA loan, immigrants like Martha who fled her native Colombia when guerrillas threatened to kidnap her daughter and who now makes her living as a seamstress thanks to an ACCION USA loan.
Because it was September 11, I also told her about Luis who was once homeless and lost his job delivering baked goods to businesses when the World Trade Center was attacked. Luis has an uplifting story because he went into business for himself using an ACCION USA microloan to buy the van he uses for his now-prospering baked goods delivery service.
After a tour of the office where she met some of the people behind the scenes who make ACCION USA’s lending possible, we took a quick a look at some of our clients’ products – the frilly dresses, jams, jellies, and artwork – that line our offices.
At the end of the day, what did Amelia learn? She learned that not everyone has equal access to credit, there is a need for alternative lenders, microfinance is every bit as necessary in the U.S. as it is overseas, and philanthropy is important to support disadvantaged individuals. At least, I think she learned all these things. But her mother is actually making her write a report on her visit to ACCION USA. And when I see it, I hope to share it here.
Back to School, Back to Small Business
Patsy and her daughter, Yanique, at Expressions Education Center
With the end of summer upon us, our minds turn to fall, when kids (and some adults) return to school and the rest of us return to work from our late-summer vacations. Patsy and Yanique, of Expressions Education Center, have already been thinking about and preparing for back-to-school season for the last few months. As they wrap up their summer camp session, they are registering elementary-school students for the fall term of their after-school tutoring program.
Patsy, a native of Jamaica and a teacher by trade, started Expressions out of her Brooklyn home fifteen years ago when she saw that her students needed more one-on-one help with their schoolwork. Soon after, Patsy’s business grew to occupy a building in Flatbush, and her daughter Yanique joined to help her mother develop business strategy. They hired additional teachers to meet their community’s growing interest.
Having no luck with local banks, Patsy had to rely on expensive credit cards to finance her initial business investment. She received a loan from ACCION USA last year in order to make some renovations required by the city government, and used part of the loan to begin paying down her expensive debt. For small business owners like Patsy, who have to rely on credit cards for large investments, ACCION USA provides one of the only low-cost options available.
Patsy and Yanique’s business is much more than just an after-school day care center for kids with working parents. They have created a fun environment for holistic academic and nutritional learning that kids are excited to come to after school. Patsy and Yanique have even begun expanding their music class options from piano and flute to more unique instruments like trumpets and drums. They also plan to continue their popular baking contests – in addition to being a good way to teach kids the valuable lesson of how to follow directions, there aren’t any complaints about consuming the resulting sweets.
For the Fall schedule, check out the events page of Expressions’ website!
Tags: education, expressions, success story
Over the Limit? Checking in on the “Plastic Safety Net”
It seems like every day that we witness the impact of changing credit card terms and conditions on small business owners at ACCION USA. This shifting
How safe are small business owners 'plastic safety nets'?
revolving debt landscape is particularly dangerous, given that credit cards have become a “plastic safety net” for many low- and middle-income households, as a new study by non-partisan public policy research group Demos found.
In Demos’ survey of 1,205 low- and middle-income adults, 15% cited small business expenses as a factor in accumulating credit card debt. In June, the New York Times reported that 59% of small business owners rely on credit cards to help finance their day-to-day operations. That’s up from 44% at the end of last year and 16% in 1993. The numbers are enough to generate a growing concern about the so-called ‘plastic safety net.’
Safety net or not, the plastic in these business owners’ wallets is certainly troublesome, as 75% of credit card-dependent small businesses have seen a cut in credit card limits over the last six months. Along with slashed limits, rising interest rates pose an additional challenge for today’s small business owner.
It’s no wonder then that there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, signed into law by President Barack Obama in May. The Act seeks to address many of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs who use their personal credit cards for business purposes. Some of the changes include: delayed onset of penalty interest rates, a longer notice period for changes in terms and conditions, and incentives for timely payments.
Today, many in Congress are working to extend the legislation’s protections to business lines of credit. In the meantime, a word of caution to small business owners who continue to use credit cards to finance small business expenses!
For more information, check out ACCION USA’s overview on the new credit card legislation for more information.
Annals of Corporate Social Responsibility
Guest blog by Erika Eurkus, senior director of resource development at ACCION USA.
What do craft beer and South Beach have in common? U.S. microfinance of course!
Who would have thunk it? Really, who?
When I starting working in the field as an Americorps*VISTA volunteer, people thought I was nuts. Micro what? Oh, you do micro-finance? Well I do macro-finance. Funny. Really. My, how times have changed. Microfinance has developed as an asset class, and in the U.S. more and more individuals and corporations are using microfinance as a channel for doing good. A preview from the “Annals of Corporate Social Responsibility at ACCION USA: September 2009″:
ACCION USA staff at the Clevelander for Kiva event. From left to right: Adam Anthony, CREO Care, Inc.; Erica Dorn, ACCION USA; Dorian Gregory, actor and activist; Daymond John, FUBU; Erika Eurkus, ACCION USA
Over the Labor Day weekend actor and social activist Dorian Gregory hosted a fundraiser in Miami for Kiva.org featuring ACCION USA (a domestic Kiva partner). Dorian was inspirational in his commitment to making microfinance solutions available to all aspiring entrepreneurs nationwide. FUBU founder and CEO, Daymond John was on hand and spoke about starting his business with 10 T shirts and turning it into a multi-million dollar clothing business. Guess what else he said? Life would have been easier with access to resources provided today by microlenders.
On September 11, Boston’s business leaders started their morning with a reflection on the day, and then honored their peers for their civic engagement and philanthropy. The Boston Business Journal’s 2009 Corporate Citizenship Summit attracted 800 people who stayed in their seats for three hours to celebrate the community’s commitment not just to ‘giving back’ but to moving forward through innovative charitable work. The Boston Beer Company was honored with an award for its work with ACCION USA to develop the Brewing the American Dream program. Founder and brewer Jim Koch (who couldn’t get a bank loan to start Sam Adams) accepted the award on stage, beer in hand. Yes, it was about 9AM.
U.S. microfinance and the work of ACCION USA are also now championed by a major fashion designer who made a debut at NYC’s Fashion Week. See our president and CEO Gina Harman’s most recent blog post.
And the month is not even over.
Tory Burch Raises Awareness and Funds for U.S. Microfinance
What does it take to bring greater awareness of microfinance and how it changes lives, right here in the U.S.? Sometimes it takes the compassion and the generosity of someone like fashion designer Tory Burch (check out the rave reviews of her Fashion Week Show in the New York Times.) Her own story—beginning a business at home, achieving astounding success in five short years, becoming a mother (and learning that no role is more important)—coupled with her generous spirit compelled Tory to find an effective way to change the lives of women and children.
Tory Burch and Gina Harman meet with ACCION USA client Maritza Polanco. Photo courtesy of the Tory Burch Foundation
How fortunate are we that Tory found ACCION USA? Having formed the Tory Burch Foundation, Tory decided microfinance was just the right design for her philanthropic endeavors, and ACCION USA was just the right fit. Tory herself describes why she supports microfinance in the U.S. best: “I like microfinance in particular because it isn’t charity in the traditional sense. It’s about investing in people who might otherwise not have the chance to pursue their goals,” wrote Tory in her guest blog for Fortune Magazine
One should expect nothing less than spectacular from the very humble Tory Burch; last night, at an intimate dinner among Tory and her friends, no one was disappointed. There, she announced the Foundation and its partnership with ACCION USA, and gave me the opportunity to tell the stories of a few of our women clients that Tory and I visited. Many guests were surprised to hear that microfinance works in the US. In fact, ACCION USA along with ACCION Texas, New Mexico, San Diego, and Chicago has provided more the $250 million in loans to more than 13,000 businesses.
It was a breakthrough evening in many ways. So, where do we go from here? I hope for a long relationship that inspires others to join Tory in her great work, empowers women to accomplish their dreams, and brings greater awareness to the fact that a small amount of capital, education and tools can change the world.
Gina Harman serves as president and CEO at ACCION USA.
Tags: Tory Burch, Tory Burch Foundation
Microfinance Week In Review – Week Ending September 18, 2009
What went on in microfinance and microenterprise development, week ending September 18, 2009
- Morgan Stanley completes Grameen America project on fund projections (Microfinance Focus)
- Low-income savers held on to their homes in downturn (Importance of savings in microcredit programs – Seattle Times)
- Fed Chief Says Recession Is ‘Very Likely Over’ (The New York Times)
- Main Street vs. Wall Street (Newsweek)
- “There is nothing micro about the human spirit.” (OpportunityBlog)
- Guest Post: Tory Burch Helps Build Small Businesses (Fortune Blog)
Oh, Those Teachable Microfinance Moments
Haven’t we all had those teachable moments? Like when you realize you stuck your foot in your mouth really bad and decided that, from here on out, you will be more conscious of your comments? Or how about narrowly missing an accident because you were on your cell phone? (I am guilty of this one—and now lock away my phone while driving.) When I read this South Florida Sun-Sentinel article about using the financial crisis as the perfect teachable moment for people to increase their financial literacy—it made all the sense in the world.
Of course, financial planning and getting smart about improving credit aren’t necessarily at the top of business owners’ lists as they deal with myriad business challenges. But if we take bite size pieces of information and teach them at critical moments, it is more likely to stay logged in our memory. That’s at least the feeling among ACCION USA’s financial education team—they’ve gotten creative with short podcasts, tip sheets, and keying in on catching small business owners at the right moment—like when your application gets tripped up because your credit score is too low.
Are you ready for your financial teachable moment?