A key issue to grow our sustainable economy is moving
capital to the businesses who need it most and businesses who are going to
create jobs, wealth, and improvements to the quality of life for communities
around the world.
Entrepreneurship and local businesses are some of the key
drivers to keeping our communities thriving, and the institutions which are
meant to finance such businesses have lost human scale in the last 40-50 years.
Big banks getting bigger, Wall Street dealmakers only doing bigger and bigger
deals - leave much of the small to medium sized businesses without easy access
to much needed capital.
Furthermore - small businesses which are privately owned are
more likely to be in tune with the needs of society, the environment and the
community of stakeholders around them. Thus the more ways we can support
locally owned, small and medium sized enterprises, the better.
To that end, I have been very involved with the local
investing movement for the last 7 years.
Most recently since mid 2011 I have been a member of the
California Financial Opportunities Roundtable - a group of experts convened by
the USDA Rural Economic Development and Federal Reserve Bank to identify
pathways for moving money into the businesses and communities which need it
most, and who will drive the most positive change for their communities. We represented finance, impact investing, philanthropy,
business, economic development, government and more
The California Financial Opportunities
Roundtable (CalFOR) is part of a statewide initiative
supporting development of regional industry clusters to provide jobs,
entrepreneurial opportunities, business growth, public and private sector
investment in value-chain infrastructure and sustainable
communities throughout California. Working with a wide array of partners,
the goals of that project include:
- Innovation
in Capital Markets and new sources of investment for projects and business
growth.
- Expansion
of regional food systems and associated value chain opportunities.
- Growth
of biomass utilization, biofuels and renewable energy production.
- Development
of region-specific industry clusters and related business networks.
- Improved
Rural-Urban collaboration and related infrastructure deployment
Our ACCESS TO CAPITAL GUIDEBOOK is available for viewing and
download here.
