Raising capital is difficult for any startup or small business. But it’s especially challenging for entrepreneurs in food or agriculture. Margins are often low, especially in the beginning. There’s also enormous risk due to factors outside of an entrepreneur’s control, like unexpected weather impact on crops. Providing collateral that lenders will accept can be difficult for […]
Community Investing News
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How The JOBS Act Gets it Wrong—And DPOs Get it Right
The last few years have been exciting ones, as new crowdfunding laws at the state and federal level have been passed that allow people to easily invest in small, growing companies—the kind of investments that, since the Securities Act of 1933, have been the exclusive purview of accredited, or wealthy, investors. In many ways, it […]
Building a Local Peace Economy: We Have the Power
Many activists don’t seem to think it matters where they spend their money. BALLE co-founder Judy Wicks knows otherwise. She shares this perspective in AlterNet’s new series, which explores the need for rethinking how we organize our lives and economy to be more just, peaceful, and sustainable.
Invest in Who You Know – Part 2
Most people don’t have the ability, flexibility or funds to invest like a professional, and a more common approach for ‘investing in what you know’ takes the form of how well you can follow a company, mainly by looking at what you (or others who you trust) know about the company, or what the company […]
With New Offering, StreetShares Opens Small Business Lending to All Investors
Ordinary investors across the country can now lend money to small businesses, thanks to a regulatory greenlight given to online lender StreetShares. The move comes as the industry gears up for Title III, the long awaited JOBS Act provision that will open up investment crowdfunding to the mainstream when it goes into effect on May […]
Local Economy Investors Circle Pioneering Place-Based Impact Investing
A growing number of visionary local economy funders and investors are working in particular geographic regions and using their philanthropic and investment resources in an integrated way toward this transition: we call this place-based impact investing. Over the last two years, BALLE Investors Circle participants have been innovating and exploring new ways to combine philanthropy […]
February Local Economy Leaders in the News
Last month James Johnson-Piett was named one of the 100 most influential people on Brooklyn’s culture, Carol Newell was recognized for her place-based impact investing leadership, Jessica Norwood’s efforts to build wealth for African Americans were showcased by Neighborhood Economics, and more.
Millennials, Money and Meaning
Green Money Journal’s February 2016 Issue A Generation Forging a New Economic Path By Guest Editor Patrick Davis, Community Reinvestment Fund and formerly with Calvert Foundation The Millennial Generation has been a source of much debate in recent years. Commentators seem to disagree passionately about what the ultimate legacy of this generational cohort will be. Will […]
Regenerative Business Mentors Visit First Green Bank
In late January, as “The Year in the Life” project moved into its final months, we once again paid a visit to First Green Bank. This time we invited along two mentors who are leading thinkers and doers in the Regenerative Economy space—author, business advisor, and educator Carol Sanford; and Vincent Stanley, author, poet, […]
Michelle Long & Re>Think Local Talk Localism Strategies with Radio Woodstock
BALLE executive director, Michelle Long, recently chatted with Radio Woodstock’s Peter Buffett and Re>Think Local’s Kale Kaposhilin and Ajex Greene about localism strategies that are helping to shape the new economy and build stronger communities.
Wealthier Investors Are an Essential Part of Community Capital Markets
The Securities and Exchange Commission has recently estimated that approximately 10% of all U.S. Households are now in the “Accredited Investor“ category (for individuals, that means $1m in net worth not counting primary residence, or $200k of income). Assuming that’s accurate, there are now over 12 million households in the U.S. that meet the definition […]
Social Impact Bonds: Something Republicans And Democrats Agree On
Democrats and Republicans don’t seem to agree on much in this fractious campaign season. The exception may be Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), an innovative new financing model that is being welcomed with a warm bipartisan embrace. Also known as pay for success, SIBs are a new mechanism for financing initiatives aimed at addressing social ills, […]
Venture Investing in Food Accelerates: Get on Trend at FE
Get on trend with the start ups and sustainable companies feted at Food + Enterprise Investing in food is increasingly capturing the attention and capital of venture funds and angels in the US, edging tech out of its place as the only bet on the table. Attend Food + Enterprise Summit, April 8-9, 2016 (the premiere […]
Increased Investment as well as Diversification across Impact Themes
As we start off the New Year, TriLinc Global will be discussing notable trends from 2015 that we see as relevant to the development and growth of the impact investing sector in 2016 and beyond. This is the final post in a four-part series. In line with better ESG scoring and standardization, research on asset allocation […]
Invest in Who You Know – Part 1
There’s an old saying that you should “invest in what you know,” but what’s far more valuable is when you can “invest in who you know” as well. The new crowdfunding laws are not designed to nurture this; they are meant to prohibit investment conversations with the company insiders when the opposite has historically been […]
A Crowdfunding Platform For Equitable Real Estate
“I like the grittiness of cities,” says Eve Picker, a Pittsburgh resident of 31 years who maintains a healthy Australian twang. “I like to think about places that have been left behind. What will it take to get people to put their money into places like that?” For Picker, it’s not just a rhetorical question. […]
Slow Living Summit conference on food and agriculture entrepreneurship
PRESS RELEASE, 2/9/2016 Strolling of the Heifers announces Slow Living Summit conference on food & agriculture entrepreneurship Strolling of the Heifers announces the sixth annual Slow Living Summit conference, an exploration of entrepreneurship in the food and agriculture sector, taking place in Brattleboro, Vermont, April 28-30. The Summit will feature a roster […]
Retail Investors: Rising Interest and Opportunity in Impact Investing
As we start off the New Year, TriLinc Global will be discussing notable trends from 2015 that we see as relevant to the development and growth of the impact investing sector in 2016 and beyond. This is the second post in a four-part series. As TriLinc looks toward 2016, it is clear that the evolving […]
Social Impact Fashion Comes to Main Street
In 2012, Alok Appadurai and Jade Beall, co-owners of a yoga and arts studio in Tucson, Arizona, began designing and selling t-shirts and donating a portion of each sale to local nonprofits that feed the hungry. Little did they know where that simple idea would take them. As they learned more about the fashion industry, […]
It’s the DPO Digest!
Baah baah almost there! The Economic Development and Financing Corporation is at 90% of its goal in its Direct Public Offering. California investors can help them reach their target by investing before February 9th. Through a community-based Local Social Impact Investment Note, EDFC offers investors an opportunity for California residents to launch the Mendocino Wool Mill project – […]
Impact Investing: What’s to Come in 2016
The year 2015 was an exciting time in the impact investing space as many different players, such as investment managers, banks, regulators, analysts, asset managers, financial advisors, family offices, foundations and endowments, engaged the capital markets to help solve some of the world’s pressing economic, social and environmental challenges. Their efforts in new investments, risk […]
How You Can Help Create a Better World With Your Dollars
It would be an understatement to say that there are many challenges abroad and in our own backyards: homelessness, hunger, deforestation, the list goes on. Most of these challenges we will be unable to influence directly, and many of us here in the U.S. have never experienced those challenges personally. So, for someone who wants […]
Move Over Microbrews, Cars Are the New Crowdfunding Darlings
Are cars the new beer? You might think so from the latest spate of high profile crowdfunding campaigns. As new securities regulations go into effect that allow significantly larger amounts of capital to be raised, a new breed of issuer is grabbing the spotlight. In the last several weeks, boldly imaginative car and aircraft makers have […]
A Mud-Riding ‘Geeky Girl’ Beats the Crowdfunding Drum in Mississippi
Jennifer Gatewood calls herself ‘Mississippi’s Geeky Girl.’ After a career in information technology, she started Peer Elevate to “bridge a gap and lift people up.” When Mississippi enacted an intrastate crowdfunding exemption in May 2015, she saw an opportunity to create Mississippi’s first crowdfunding portal, Peer Elevate Funding. But first, there was a lot of education […]
Will Impact Investing Join the Challenge of Addressing America’s Racial Divide?
Impact investment can be an important tool in addressing the racial wealth gap if impact investors think of their work as not only placing investments in individual funds or businesses, but as part of an active strategy to foster systemic change.
As Population Becomes More Diverse, Funding Options Grow
The gorgeous mosaic that makes up the U.S. is becoming more so. African-Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics collectively account for 38% of the U.S. population, and are expected to surpass 50% by 2044. And the Millennial generation is not only large, it is the most racially diverse in the nation’s history. This multi-culti melting pot […]
The Research is Clear: Local Business is Good for What Ails The Economy
Here at Locavesting, we always perk up when we see the Hometown Advantage Bulletin land in our mailbox. Put together by Stacy Mitchell & team at the Institute for Local Self Reliance, the newsletter is always full of insightful articles and research on local economy issues. In fact, for 40 years, ILSR has been at […]
Community Development & Revitalization – How It’s Done
A Dialogue on Community Development and Impact Investing: Featuring Ron Phillips and Ellen Golden of CEI Ron Phillips is the founding CEO of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), the Community Development Corporation (CDC) and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in Maine. He will be stepping down from CEI in July 2016 after 38 years. Ellen […]
Demystifying CDFIs: How to Invest in a Loan Fund
Aeris (formerly known as CARS) is an information and ratings service for U.S. community investments—you might think of them as the Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s of the nonprofit finance world. Aeris rates organizations on their financial strength and social impact to help investors make informed decisions. Karen Seabury, Director of Ratings at Aeris, shares […]
Michael Shuman on Pollinators, Social Enterprise and Remaking Economic Development
Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, entrepreneur, and one of the world’s leading experts on community economics. (He is not, however, a famous rock drummer). His eighth book, (we think, we’ve lost count) The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative Self-Financing “Pollinator” Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity, takes on the economic development profession […]
SEC Move Could Determine the Fate of Intrastate Crowdfunding
Will this be the year that intrastate crowdfunding catches fire? The answer may depend upon the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is considering updates to a federal rule that underlies the vast majority of intrastate crowdfunding laws. After a public comment period ends on Monday, the agency will begin deliberating on changes that could make—or […]
2015: The Year in Impact Investing & Social Enterprise
The idea that business can be a force for good has been gaining steam for years, but 2015 may have been the year that it went mainstream. Here’s a look back at some of the year’s most notable developments in the world of social enterprise and impact investing. Mark Zuckerberg embraces impact investing. When the Facebook […]
Crowdfinance: Experts Predict What’s in Store for 2016
2016 will be the year that the long-awaited Title III “Regulation Crowdfunding” goes into effect. That, along with Title II (for accredited investors), Regulation A+ (Title IV) and intrastate crowdfunding, will open up new avenues for entrepreneurs, investors and portals alike. But where will it all lead? We asked some experts to weigh in on […]
A look back at 2015
As I write this it’s 67° F in the Washington, DC area, and it doesn’t seem like the right time for a year-end review. But it’s indeed the end of December, and we’re reflecting on the biggest stories from 2015 and previewing what’s to come in 2016. Vested.org re-launches with better user experience Our online […]
Three Direct Public Offerings You Can Invest in Today
Starting May 16, all investors, regardless of wealth, will be able to invest in private companies when the last piece of the JOBS Acts goes into effect. In the meantime, there’s an alternative: direct public offerings, or DPOs. These offerings use pre-JOBS Act exemptions to allow private companies to extend investment opportunities to ordinary investors. […]
A New Index Shows Main Street Entrepreneurship on the Rise
It was a good year for Main Street entrepreneurs. A new Kauffman Foundation index of small business entrepreneurial activity showed a large increase in 2015, marking the first big gains since the onset of the financial crisis six years ago. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has long been a champion of entrepreneurship, especially the kind […]
Closing The Racial Wealth Gap Through Business Ownership
A recent report published by FIELD at The Aspen Institute and Asset Funders Network explored how philanthropic funders can help narrow the racial wealth gap in the U.S. through programs that support business ownership. Joyce Klein, director of FIELD and co-author of the report, offers some thoughts on the topic in this guest post. Much […]
The Worker-Owned Sharing Economy Aims to Disrupt the Disruptors
Tech-based startups are drawing on cloud computing, algorithms and mobile phones to create a new on-demand service economy, conjuring help with the press of a button. There’s Uber for transportation, Handy for home cleaning, and Task Rabbit for everything from running errands to assembling furniture. In the process, they are changing the nature of work […]
Debating The New Economy And Whether Capitalism Can be Saved
There’s a lot of talk about the new economy – including on this media site. But what does the term really mean? And what should this new economy we are creating look like? Sometimes it’s useful to poke our heads up and ponder the big questions. Megan Stanek reports on one such discussion from New […]
In Hawaii, a Utility Cooperative Leads The Way in Renewable Energy
As Hawaii considers the ramifications of a contentious $4.3 billion sale of its major electric utility to Florida-based power giant NextEra, Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) stands out as an alternative model of utility ownership. KIUC is one of around 900 electric cooperatives serving some 42 million electric consumers in 47 states. Like all cooperatives, […]
‘Tis The Season to ‘Shop Small and ‘Buy Local.’ What About Investing That Way?
In the next few days, a wave of shopping ‘holidays’ hits one after another—Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, all in preparation for, well, the holidays. But a more conscious consumerism seems to be emerging. Last month, outdoor sports retailer REI vowed to close all of its 143 stores on Black Friday, prompting other […]
WEBINAR: Is a Direct Public Offering Right for You? Jan 6, 2016, 1 p.m. PT
A Direct Public Offering (DPO) is a term that refers to a public offering of securities by a business or nonprofit to both accredited and non-accredited investors in one or more states. DPOs can involve several different legal compliance strategies, and can be structured as debt, equity, or revenue-sharing. DPOs are available to many different […]
Reflections from a Waypoint in First Green Bank’s Regenerative Journey
Over the course of the first six months of Capital Institute‘s Year in the Life of a Regenerative Bank project, we have talked to the stakeholders of First Green Bank about the critical challenges they face as the bank works to embed its regenerative-values-based mission into its day-to-day operations and to balance the profit motive against […]
Wells Fargo Invests $1,000,000 in Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers
Investment will provide small business loans for emerging entrepreneurs MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 16, 2015 /3BL Media/ – Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced it has provided a $1,000,000 Equity Equivalent Investment (EQ2) to Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD), a 501(c)3 organization that provides small business loans and technical assistance to emerging entrepreneurs who […]
The New Crowdfunding Rules: What They Mean For Investors
Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss is a principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a leader of the securities-based crowdfunding movement. In the second of a three-part series, he looks at what investors need to know about the newly approved Regulation Crowdfunding rules (aka Title III), which are expected to go into effect next spring. The new crowdfunding […]
The New Crowdfunding Rules: What They Mean For Entreprenuers
The SEC hath delivered the rules, and they are good! They are also voluminous: the final Regulation Crowdfunding rules adopted by the S.E.C. last week spanned 685 pages. We asked Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss, a principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a leader of the securities-based crowdfunding movement, to help us sort through the rules and […]
US Labor Department Releases New Guidance Note on Economically Targeted Investments for Pension Funds
On October 22, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01 (“IB 15-01”), which provides clarification on the conditions under which a fiduciary of a plan that is subject to the fiduciary standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) may invest plan assets in economically targeted investments (“ETIs”). […]
It’s Official! SEC Greenlights Main Street Crowdfunding
Let the great experiment in financial democratization begin! The SEC on Friday adopted final rules for Regulation Crowdfunding (aka Title III)—the last and most sweeping piece of the JOBS Act legislation, which was signed into law three-and-a-half years ago. With the move, the SEC opened up investment crowdfunding to the general public for the first […]
Today’s SEC Release Regarding Title III JOBS Act Crowdfunding
Cutting Edge Capital Applauds Today’s SEC Release Regarding Title III JOBS Act Crowdfunding …Direct Public Offerings! The Securities and Exchange Commission’s announcement today was monumental – but not for the reasons most people had been anticipating. While the final rules are now out for Title III of the JOBS Act regarding crowdfunding, Cutting Edge Capital […]
A New Fund Helps Beginning Farmers Secure Land of Their Own
Like most young farmers today, Tim Biello learned to farm through working other people’s land. It was at one of those farms, Essex Farm, a sustainable operation in New York powered by solar panels and draft horses, that he fell in love with farming with horses. “I feel much more connected to farming land with […]
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