Our story with Kiva U.S. starts with an urgent need to say ‘yes’ in a world that often seems all too committed to saying ‘no.’
Towards the end of 2013, folks from Kiva U.S. broached the Slow Money SoCal community to become a Trustee. Up to that point, several of us had been discussing the ideas inspired by Woody Tasch in the book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money. We wanted to move money directly in the local economy through a network of folks that would carry the Slow Money philosophies to action. We struggled with what we felt was an inherent ‘no’ built into investment laws written in another era. Our introduction to Kiva looked like an answer. With its aggregate funding design and 0% loans, the well-respected micro lender was beyond the scope of regulatory concern. This Slow Money/Kiva relationship seemed designed to allow us to act on our goals. This was a place where we could begin to say ‘yes.’
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The Slow Money minded folks of the Local Investment Networking Club (LINC-OC) became Trustees.
Jennifer and her delivery box small food enterprise, Out of the Box Collective was our first ‘yes’ of what would become many. We said ‘yes’ for Jennifer’s first $5,000 loan. We said a very excited, ‘yes’ to Jennifer featured in a video alongside Jonny Price to share the Kiva U.S. story.
When Jennifer paid back her first loan early, we said ‘yes’ to a second loan. This time for $10,000. To make these two loans over a two-year period, 435 lenders in our community and beyond, said ‘yes’ to Jennifer too.
We’ve continued to say ‘yes.’
We’ve said yes to many entrepreneurs sharing our Slow Money values for sustainable food, healthy soil and local economy. And with each ‘yes’ we learned more about ourselves and a growing community of everyday folks becoming empowered for a democratized
finance. In the final days of 2015, in my role with Slow Money SoCal, I was asked for another ‘yes’. A yes to serve in a pilot program for the Kiva U.S. Small Business Advisors. I was honored to be considered and acquiesced with a humble, ‘yes.’ As a Small Business Advisor over the last months, I have felt my excitement, energy and efforts to connect local investors to the places where they live become amplified. Being a Small Business Advisor has inspired me with a brief glimpse of the wisdom and discipline of a very dynamic Kiva U.S. team laser focused on creating opportunity for small business. I give a resounding and positive, ‘YES’ to Kiva and the work they are doing. I look forward to more opportunities for a personal ‘yes’ in the Kiva community. But I also want to spread the word. It’s fun to help folks and be involved with these entrepreneurial innovators. I encourage everyone in a world of ‘no’s’ to find ways towards an empowered ‘yes!’ Kiva is a great place to start.
The foundation partners with local community and grassroots organizations to “create innovative solutions to food access and health in their communities.” These solutions include urban farms and cooking classes. Since its 2014 inception, the foundation has developed partnerships in three cities, with future partnerships planned and a commitment to raising $1 million in seed money to programmatic operations over the next three
We as a world, waste so much food. “In 2010 133 billion pounds of edible food at the retail and consumer level went uneaten (1,249 calories per person per day) with about two-thirds of this waste attributed to consumers” (Qi & Roe, 2016). Much of the produce is essentially “thrown out” because grocery stores want to sell the perfect produce. If an apple has a bruise because it fell from the tree it cannot go into the grocery store. Instead it goes to a waste land, farmers market, or even donated. This idea was something I did not think about at all. However, after watching this film I was able to value a Farmers Market so much more. I do not wish to continue the idea of perfect produce, therefore I will ensure I get my future produce from local growers. This film truly changed my perception of food in
Butler Lumber Company is looking for more cash due to a fast-paced lumber market and a shortage of funding. Their regular bank, Suburban National Bank, is not willing to expand their exiting loan to an amount greater than $250,000 without securing the loan with real property. Another loan is being offered by a second bank, Northrup National Bank, for $465,000, with the understanding that the previous loan would be rolled into the second. The interest on the new loan would be prime + 2%.
"Capitalism vs. Socialism." Small Business Finance - Business and Finance,Small Business Financing,Finance for Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Education. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. .
This begs the very important question, what exactly is shadow banking?. It first originated from remarks by economist Paul McCulley as a description of a large segment of financial intermediation that is routed outside the balance sheets of regulated commercial banks and similar depository institutions. This routing of the information outside the balance sheets is the key reason why financial regulators and economists have so named this industry. The spotlight on Sh...
Chapter 10 is concerned with both modernism and industrial beauty. These concepts arose from the art and discipline of photography early in the 1880s and prevailed towards the early 1920s. This period is defined by a dramatic shift of subject matter away from historical and classical subject matter in favor of modern events and experimental representations of subject matter. Particularly, photographs of this time were evaluated with a criteria that can now be described as aesthetic formalism. This means that from is given emphasis over content. This means that the photographer intentionally contrives meaning which is interpretable by the viewer. The emphasis is more on the viewer to critically appreciate modern works but
The country’s highly tuned legal regulatory framework has allowed it become Europe’s leading investment fund center. Due to this those that would like to market their investment funds on a global scale have turned to Luxembourg as the country focuses on the administration and cross-border distribution of investment funds. The types of investments that can be made include banking services (that focus in international loans and capital markets activity, financial engineering, structured products, private banking and financial services for large and medium-sized businesses), renminibi businesses, investment vehicles, Insurance & Pensions, and microfinance
I selected Rhoda because she was a first time loan recipient and at the time when I found her she had not been funded at all. I did not really look at what her business was, but that she had to raise five children on her own, and her house was gone. Rhoda really needed to expand her vegetable stall to make more money to be able to support her family, and build herself a new house. When selecting this loan I was hoping that she would get fully funded and that this little bit of money would help her tremendously. She did get fully funded, and her children quickly went from eating one meal a day, to three. She even plans on taking out another loan soon.
Micro-loaning is designed to break the cycle of poverty by allowing low income residents access to outside funds, which they were previously restricted from. These funds give the opportunity to participate in investments, such as small businesses, and create a steady flow of income. Micro-loaning provides financial services for those who might have low or no income, as well as not having the official documents required when applying for a regular loan. With the goal of low interest and easy application, micro-loaning appears to the most efficient, alternative way of alleviating poverty. To help gain a better understanding of micro-loaning; we will explore the micro-finance history and its organization, poverty and the target subject of this organization, and the benefits and backfires of providing these services.
University Of Hawaii (2000). CASH MANAGEMENT AND SHORT-TERM INVESTMENT OF OPERATING FUNDS. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/svpa/ep/e8/e8201.pdf
Compartamos leveraged its organizational structure to accomplish its goal of growth and financial sustainability. Compartamos’s emphasis on profitability and bank-chartered organizational structure produced high quality reporting, rapid growth, and, through its IPO, provided proof that microfinance could provide meaningful returns to investors while helping the poor. However, Compartamos’s financial success is argued to exploit the poor through high interest rates and mission drift of microfinance. These strengths and weaknesses highlight the limitations on pursuing financial performance over social impact in the industry of microfinance.
In case of illiquid Local markets clients can benefit by Easy access of acquiring financing by entering into highly li...
We don’t operate like banks. We have a direct line to our investors. We also have a loan approval process that’s 100% online. That means you get the quickest, most efficient turnaround when it comes to approving your loan and disbursing your funds.
With the world shrinking away due to an increase in economic globalization, life seems to be moving faster and faster everyday. Corporate business is taking over agricultural ecosystems. The Earth is sadly backdrop to all this chaos: left to rot away on its own. Small town America is disappearing amidst an overflow of megastores. Quaint communities and local economies are decreasing as malls are increasing in popularity. Environmentalists are worried these days; the Earth’s condition seems to be waning at an unruly rate.S.P. 1 There is a movement to stop all this madness: local food. Americans should buy local food products, whenever possible, in order to reestablish a sense of community, boost the local economy, and convalesce the environment.
Deep Routes Gardening is part of a company called The Funky Skunk. They have premises across the country with a funky skunk shop in Dublin, Bantry and Cork city. They have their gardening shop, Deep Routes Gardening in both cork city and Limerick and they also have a warehouse in Macroom. The company are just after buying a composting factory that went into liquidation. This will mean that they will be able to produce high quality compost for use in the plant nursery in West Cork and they will also be able to sell their new compost in their stores and to other stores also. The store in Cork City is where I did my one day a week work experience and it is a successful store with lots of regular customers that I saw from week to week. They specialize in aquaponic and hydroponic equipment in this store and also put a great importance on medicinal herbs, they are also one of a few places that sell CBD oil, the non psychoactive oil from the hemp plant. This oil has been proven to help with a number of medical