I helped create the Access to Capital Guidebook as a member of California Financial Opportunities Roundtable

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.