Microfinance Video Launch: It’s Not Charity, It’s a Chance
Over the past few weeks, we at ACCION USA have been thinking a lot about the impact microentrepreneurs have on our communities. Since their local impact is such a large part of our lives, we decided to put together an amazing microfinance video about it! The video launched yesterday as part of our It’s Not Charity campaign to raise donations this holiday season. And better yet—each dollar raised will be matched 100% by ACCION USA’s Board of Directors!
Making the microfinance video was an exciting opportunity for us to creatively think about what our communities get back from supporting microentrepreneurs. First, microentrepreneurs create new employment, which provides more people with the opportunity to earn a living wage, support their families, and spend their income at other businesses. Second, microentrepreneurs enliven and enrich the communities we live in—we all value the human connection and conversations we share with our local business owners on a daily basis.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, microfinance doesn’t mean giving charity—it means a chance. That’s why we’ve chosen “It’s Not Charity, It’s a Chance” as the overall theme of our campaign.
Consider giving back to your local community by donating to ACCION USA this holiday season and buying from local businesses. In the meantime, check out www.itsnotcharity.org and the video above!
Live, Love, Lend
This guest post comes from Boston staff member Melissa Roberts…
Thursday night, Kiva held its very first lenders party in Boston with the spectacular tag-line “Live. Love. Lend.” ACCION USA, is one of only two Kiva partner 
organizations in the United States, and we dared not miss the event. Our Boston-based team bundled up and trekked through the unusually bitter weather to support micro-entrepreneurs.
Lenders, supporters, and curious minds gathered at the Mexican-Irish fusion pub Jose McIntyre’s. While the DJ spun hot beats, the true star of the night was ACCION USA borrower Doracy, owner of Dore’s Boutique in Fall River, MA, who had received her loan through our Kiva loan program. Before coming to ACCION USA, Doracy had tried to find a small loan through traditional venues, but was unable to get the small boost of capital she needed to stock her store’s shelves for the holiday season.
A splendid time was had, and much to our delight Jose McIntyre’s was not only serving Sam Adams Boston Brick Red, sales of which benefit ACCION USA’s Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream Loan Fund, but promoting it with coasters strewn all over the bar!
The simplicity of the event got me thinking: a group of people, all passionate about a cause can get together and support microfinance by doing something commonplace. We all gather with friends at bars and purchase beer to enjoy. Now, organizations like Kiva and Sam Adams are putting a socially conscious spin on these activities by linking them to microfinance!
I know that I, for one, will be more conscious about supporting small businesses as I go about my daily life, because being part of something bigger is thrilling.
I’ll sign out with a word to the wise: Live. Love. LEND! (And drink Sam Adams responsibly!)
Tags: jose mcintyres, kiva, live love lend, Sam Adams
Buy Beer to Support ACCION USA. Intrigued?
The partnership between Sam Adams and ACCION USA just keeps getting better. Through Brewing the American Dream, we’ve advised over 150 food, beverage and hospitality entrepreneurs at our speed coaching events. We’ve provided loans to dozens of business owners so they can grow and expand their reach into our New England communities. These businesses have in turn created 240 jobs.
So you ask: How can my beer drinking help small business owners? Great question, better answer: Through October The Boston Beer Company will donate $0.25 for every case of Boston Lager you buy in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. On top of that 6 distributors will match the donation with an additional $0.25.
The winning equation goes: YOU buy a case of craft brewed beer = Our favorite bewer donates $$ + Awesome distributors donate $$ = Hard working small business owners in YOUR community thrive.
Does 25 cents sound too micro? Earlier this year Sam Adams gave a micro-donation for every keg of Boston Brick Red sold in Boston. That initiative has so far netted ACCION USA $10,000. Doesn’t sound so micro anymore, does it?
Contest Alert!
Want a chance to win free Sam Adams apparel and Boston Lager pint glasses?
1) Become a fan of ACCION USA’s Facebook page
2) Comment on our wall why you support small business
Each week we will randomly draw 2 names from the comments on our fan page and these people will win a prize from Sam Adams Brewing Company!
Could it be easier?
This contest will run through October 31.
Spread the word on Twitter: Fan @ACCION_USA on Facbook & comment why you love small business. Each week 2 commenters will win free stuff from Sam Adams! Thru Oct 31. Pls RT
A parting word from Jim Koch, founder of The Boston Beer Company
“I started Samuel Adams almost 25 years ago, on a shoestring. I brewed the first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in my kitchen. I applied to several banks for a loan to start my business, but every bank turned me down. Despite the hurdles, I believed in Boston Lager and wanted to share it with beer lovers looking for a fresh and flavorful local bee. Today, I want to bring things full circle and give back to other passionate entrepreneurs who need a leg up. Through sales of that first beer that I brewed in my kitchen, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, we are donating 25 cents for every case sold in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream.”
(Thanks to the Boston Beer Company for the quote)
MicroBike 2009: Pedaling Against Poverty
ACCION USA Loan Consultant Renzo Mendoza prepares for Sunday’s big ride.
In the summer of 2008, six college seniors rode across the United States to celebrate their graduation, and to raise funds and spread the word about microfinance. Calling their project MicroBike USA, the riders raised $35,000 and told the story of global poverty and microfinance to thousands.
This year, hundreds had the opportunity to participate in MicroBike 2009 through “micro-rides” in communities from Boston to Bogota. Through pledges from supporters, MicroBike 2009 has already raised more than $32,000 to fight global poverty.
Despite a rainy weekend here in Boston, on Sunday the ACCION Boston and Friends team pedaled the 15 miles from Bedford, Mass. to the State House in Downtown Boston. As of this writing, the team raised more than $4,600 toward the cause. The weekend’s other notable riders included teams from lead sponsor Eaton Vance, including the cleverly-named Tour de Vance, which raised more than $4,000.
Missed this weekend’s ride but want to participate? You can still sign up to organize a ride in your community, and you can contribute to MicroBike 2009 through the end of the year. Don’t forget to watch this blog for information about MicroBike 2010, which is sure to be even bigger and better!
Tags: ACCION International, microbike
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
TwitGift.ly The Virtual Gift that Keeps Giving
Giving virtual gifts is a staple of online friendship. Who doesn’t love getting for their Facebook birthday a cake full of candles that will never burn out or drip wax on the frosting? Or giving a diamond engagement ring to your best friend/Facebook wife? Now you can give a virtual gift and change somebody’s life at the same time!
TwiftGift.ly, a virtual gift website, has added gifts that support charities to their collection of fun, goofy, and thoughtful presents. For a $5 donation you get a fistful of cash to give to friends. All proceeds go to ACCION USA, which will leverage your money to make an entrepreneur’s dreams come true.
Five Things to Do with a Fistful of Cash
- Tell a small business owner about our financing by sending them an ACCION USA gift
- Give your friend virtual birthday money (comes with $5 of good karma)
- Explain charity to your child via the virtual gift and your $5 donation to ACCION USA
- Tell a story and say: And then I found $5!
- Play poker: the winner gets virtual cash and we make the money into microloans
I challenge you to make a sea of cash on the Internet that will become a sea change for our entrepreneurs. You can send this gift via Twitter, Facebook, email, and all your social networks. If you and nine friends give a virtual gift this weekend instead of getting a $5 milkshake then we are halfway to helping a private school bus driver buy a car seat for the children. How many businesses can you help? The sky’s the limit.
And who doesn’t want a fistful of cash?
Who Is Lucy Valena and Why Does She Rock Our Socks Off?
It seems like everybody’s talking about Lucy Valena these days.
And I’m no exception.
Lucy Valena started making a splash right away when we met her in September 2008. From the start, each AUSAer she spoke with felt her (caffeinated?) energy/excitement and recognized her determination, especially as she moved quickly through the loan process. Our $4,000 loan allowed her to purchase the equipment to launch her mobile espresso catering business, Voltage Coffee, an idea brewed from her barista days in Seattle and lifelong love of espresso.
Right after her business opened and the foam started flowing, the notes in our internal communication system show something different than your daily roast variety of comment strings. In December, Sherri, one of our illustrious loan officers, called to congratulate Lucy on the article about Voltage Coffee in the Boston Globe. Most recently the Boston lending team gathered around a computer screen to watch Lucy in a nationally televised CNN clip.
One Small Business Loan Disbursed, 27.2 Million to Go
Risa Sherman, a consultant for Samuel Adams/ the Boston Beer Co., our delicious corporate partner for Brewing the American Dream, hit the bull’s eye in her post about Lucy’s success:
Lucy is an example of the amazing spirit of small business heroes who put it all on the line every day in dedication to their craft. She is representative of the many independent, small business owners who are the faces of Main Street America. Her business and her life are so inextricably intertwined – the success of one is synonymous with the stability of the other. ~ Risa Sherman on Causenation.com
This is evident from Lucy’s own words, given in a speech just last year:
This summer, the time I wasn’t working my day job or sleeping was mostly divided between writing my business plan and research and development. I crunched numbers, wrote and rewrote until my ideas made sense, and conducted experiments with espresso and an assortment of random ingredients in hopes of finding tasty combinations. When my business plan was finally finished, I went to the SBA and met with a representative from SCORE to discuss what I should do next. I needed a loan, but because of my age I am not exactly the first person an average bank would hand cash to, even back in August. The business councilor at the SBA literally read my entire business plan cover to cover (while I squirmed in my seat), and afterwards suggested ACCION as a good place to start. (Read the full speech on Risa’s blog)
Lucy’s struggles and successes stand as one story that gets repeated every day through out the US since 27.2 million people run their own small business (SCORE) If you know somebody running a business or looking to start one, let them know about us! You never know if your favorite coffee shop’s bank just increased their minimum credit score by 50 points.
p.s. This is just cool: The Latte Zoo (Thanks Boston Food Monkey!)
Tags: CNN, coffee, entrepreneur, Sam Adams, small business
Getting our Goats
Just in from guest blogger Sophie Brion of the Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade County:
In the global south, a seemingly simple gift of a goat to an impoverished woman and her family can spur radical change in her economic outlook. Almost instantly she is able to provide some basic necessities for her family, and earn increased income. One fantastic, incredible, catalytic goat. The introduction of this goat impacts the entire trajectory of the family for generations; sending children to school, building local infrastructure and providing ballast for the entire family to weather life’s inevitable ups and downs. However, in urban Miami we knew that a goat wouldn’t cut it as a strategy to improve women’s economic security. Notwithstanding regular local sightings of El Chupa Cabra (a.k.a. the goat sucker – from Mexican folklore) we knew that goat herding was not a practical source of income for Miamians. So we began to wonder - what is the goat here in Miami?
- One fantastic, incredible, catalytic goat.
Earlier this year, my organization, the Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade (Women’s Fund), released a report on women’s economic security in Greater Miami. We wanted to identify strategies that would work well for women in Miami, were strategic and affordable investments and showed promise for lasting improvement to the economic outlook of women and their families. Goats, if you will. In researching the report we identified several strategies such as financial education, matched savings programs, better wages and more subsidized/affordable childcare that offered pieces of the economic security puzzle. As we reached out to community partners and spoke to women throughout Miami we found that the strategy that seemed to offer the most significant change in women’s lives was small business ownership. Small business ownership offers women better wages, the ability to build assets and more flexibility to manage the often competing demands of care taking for children or elderly family members and work. How then to increase the opportunities for women to become successful small business owners?
For women, the biggest obstacle to developing a successful business is likely the ability to access the capital they need to start or improve a small business. From preparing a well considered business plan, obtaining affordable loans and navigating common business pitfalls, owning your own business is certainly not easy. Yet when a woman entrepreneur has access to affordable loans and support through the development of her business the likelihood of her success is increased tremendously. At the Women’s Fund, we believe that microloans along with financial education are a highly effective strategy for helping women move out of poverty and reach a stable level of economic security. ACCION USA is just such a place where women entrepreneurs can get the support and affordable loans they need to be successful. From assisting women with their loan packages to ongoing support when fledgling businesses encounter rough spots, ACCION USA helps women entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and improve the economic outlook of their entire families. In other words, we believe that ACCION USA’s microloans are the proverbial goat, and we are not alone.
Over the next four years Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade and several of our sister funds will invest in women’s entrepreneurship through ACCION USA. Leveraging the $250,000 in funding we have received from the Women’s Self-Worth Foundation to support ACCION USA microlending to women in Miami-Dade, we are buying a lot of goats.
– Sophie Brion, Women’s Advocacy Project Director, Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade County
Tags: women
And I Would Ride 3,000 Miles
SpinVox CEO Christina Domecq
If you’ve ever driven cross-country, you know there’s a lot of time to think. Perhaps in your musings you’ve wondered how long the trip might have taken had you made it on your trusty ten-speed. Would you ever have guessed eight days? That’s the record that Christina Domecq, founder and CEO of SpinVox, and racing partner Ian Rolls will be looking to break this weekend when they complete the Race Across America (RAAM), the “world’s toughest bike race.”
RAAM is one of the oldest and most respected endurance sporting events in the world. It’s longer than the Tour de France, climbs over 100,000 feet, and is run 24/7. It also raises more than $1,000,000 every year for charitable causes. This year, Christina and Ian’s team, SpinVox Adventurers, will be riding to raise $500,000 for ACCION USA to support our work with lower-income microentrepreneurs.
“As an entrepreneur who has created a trio of businesses in the last ten years I know the struggles that many business owners face in building a company from the ground up,” says Ms. Domecq. (SpinVox is Christina’s latest entrepreneurial adventure; the company has pioneered a way to convert voicemails into mobile phone SMS text messages and emails. We’re so happy she’s discovered ACCION USA!)
Check out Christina and Ian’s blog, spoken via SpinVox!
You can make a pledge to Team SpinVox’s campaign at www.accion.org/spinvox. Or just post a comment below and cheer on Christina and Ian to the finish. Go Team SpinVox Adventurers!
Tags: Donors, microfinance, spinvox
Give a Gift to Mom, Help a Woman Microentrepreneur Get a Loan
Microfinance is widely known as a strategy to empower women. Indeed, several international microfinance institutions lend almost exclusively to women. (Women entrepreneurs are generally seen as more likely to repay their loans, to reinvest profits in their families, and less likely to skip town.) In the United States, ACCION USA lends both to men and women, although special programs emphasize the importance of improving women’s access to credit.
I am thrilled to report that two influential women have recently thrown their support behind ACCION USA’s work in the form of two extraordinarily charitable donations.
From now until May 10, a portion of sales at ToryBurch.com will be donated to ACCION USA.
- Cheryl Saban, Ph.D., author, psychologist, philanthropist, and family advocate recently announced the creation of the Women’s Self-Worth Foundation and its inaugural gift of $1 million to ACCION’s U.S. programs. The grant coincides with the release of Dr. Saban’s new book, WHAT IS YOUR SELF WORTH? A Woman’s Guide to Validation. 100% of the book’s proceeds will go to support women’s causes. If you buy the book on Amazon.com via this link, Amazon will donate a portion of the sale price to ACCION USA. [Watch Dr. Saban announce her gift on the April 30 episode of The Today Show]
- Tory Burch has announced that in honor of Mother’s Day, from now until May 10, a portion of handbag and other sales will be donated to ACCION USA. When you buy a handbag or apparel for Mom at ToryBurch.com, ACCION USA will receive a cash donation. We stand to receive up to $15,000! (After all, who has too many handbags – especially Tory Burch handbags?)
These are two wonderful examples of the intersection between individual and corporate philanthropy and the not-for-profit sector. ACCION USA already teams with the Boston Beer Co. on the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program, which provides microloans to low- and moderate-income microentrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry. As corporate social responsibility, cause marketing, and other innovative philanthropic techniques gain traction, ACCION USA will be actively seeking new partners. Do you have an idea about who could partner with ACCION USA to help get microloans into the hands of women (or other underserved entrepreneurs)? Let us know!