Five-year plan aims to bolster community lending resources and
unlock access to affordable capital for America’s underserved small
business owners
BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- (Business Wire)
In celebration of National
Small Business Week, today Sam’s Club and the Sam’s Club Giving
Program announce the Small Business Economic Mobility initiative, a
five-year investment in small business growth through increased access
to capital and borrower education. Serving small business owners and
entrepreneurs as members for 32 years, Sam’s Club launches this
philanthropic initiative to respond to the national struggle for small
business owners in low-to-moderate income communities to attain
affordable loans and navigate the lending process. By bringing together
expertise, business initiatives such as the recently announced Business
Lending Center and philanthropic investments, Sam’s Club and Sam’s Club
Giving Program are uniquely positioned to help small business owners
access affordable capital.
To launch the initiative, Sam’s Club and the Sam’s Club Giving Program
share the first round of grants totaling $13.6 million to eight national
nonprofit organizations that provide access to capital and education to
underserved U.S. small businesses including women, minorities and
veterans. Through further investments in small business advocacy and
nonprofit organizations, the five-year initiative will:
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Enable nonprofit Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI’s)
to make 5,000 loans to underserved small businesses with focus on
women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses with fewer than 20
employees
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Unlock $100 million in new capital from non-bank, community lending
resources to low- and moderate- income small business owners through
2019
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Support 28,000 jobs in the small business community
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Reach one million underserved small business owners with education on
responsible lending and better borrower practices.
”Our founder Sam Walton started Sam’s Club to help small businesses get
access to big business savings, save money and grow their businesses as
a result,” said Rosalind Brewer, president and CEO of Sam’s Club.
“Through this philanthropic investment, our founders’ legacy is carried
forward by fortifying our communities’ lending resources to increase
access to capital and borrower education for small business owners. In
collaboration with dedicated nonprofits, we are proud to open doors for
small business and strengthen the backbone of the U.S. economy.”
Across the country, small businesses and entrepreneurs report that
access to capital is a major barrier to growth. According to The
State of Small Business Lending report published by Harvard Business
School fellow and former SBA Administrator Karen Mills, the share of
small business loans provided by banks 20 years ago was about 50
percent, compared to only 30 percent in 2012. Specifically, minority
owned businesses typically encounter higher borrowing costs, receive
smaller loans and see their loan applications rejected more often by
banks, according to a
Minority Entrepreneurship Report published by UC-Berkeley and Wayne
State University. CDFIs, non-profit mission-driven lenders,
specialize in helping those businesses attain affordable loans bundled
with education. The Small Business Economic Mobility initiative helps
CDFIs to scale loans and reach more underserved business owners more
broadly.
“Economic projections indicate that in the future a growing number of
Americans will be working for themselves,” said Joyce Klein, Director of
the Aspen Institute Microenterprise Fund for Innovation and
Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination (FIELD). “The for-profit and
nonprofits that can provide capital and resources for this segment seek
to leverage technology to lower their costs and embrace new partnerships
in order to compete and to better serve this growing market. The Sam’s
Club Giving Program is a welcome new funder and contributor to the
national conversation about how to advance this diverse entrepreneurial
community and to meet their needs for capital and knowledge to build
their businesses.”
The first round of grants in the Small Business Economic Mobility
initiative includes programs to:
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Partner |
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| Grant Amount |
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| Program |
Accion U.S. Network |
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| $1.8 million |
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Support the continued development and improvement of an online
lending and financial education platform that will reach new groups
of business owners seeking capital online
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Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) |
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| $2.5 million |
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Expand cross-sector collaborations to bring innovative solutions
to community and nonprofit lenders that will increase the flow of
capital to underserved small business owners
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The Aspen Institute - Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness,
Learning and Dissemination (FIELD) |
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| $450,000 |
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Fund an applied research and learning process designed to increase
the use and sustainability of shared platforms in the
microenterprise industry, and to advance the further development
of the FIELD
microTracker data platform
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Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) |
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| $500,000 |
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Support the continued development and improvement of an online
lending platform that streamlines the Small Business
Administration Government (SBA) guaranteed loan process for CRF
and multiple lenders
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National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) |
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| $2 million |
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Provide local Latino-serving non-profit small business development
agencies and lenders with subgrants, training and technical
assistance to directly serve Latino owned micro businesses and
entrepreneurs in 19 states and the District of Columbia
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The Opportunity Fund |
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| $750,000 |
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Scale access to affordable loans for California-based small
businesses leveraging a unique model that enables loans to be
repaid through an automated small fixed percentage payment from
the business owner’s sales, helping entrepreneurs to prevent or
recover from debt traps perpetuated by high-cost, short-term
alternative lenders
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VEDC (Valley Economic Development Center) |
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| $2 million |
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Serve as a loan loss reserve to unlock $20 million in funds for
micro and small business loans. Help VEDC establish the National
Microfinance Fund in at least 10 U.S. markets expected to exist in
perpetuity
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The Sam’s Club Giving Program’s Small Business Economic Mobility
initiative will also give the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) a $3.6
million grant to raise awareness about predatory lending and educate
small business borrowers.
The Sam’s Club Giving Program’s Small Business Economic Mobility
initiative is part of the Walmart Foundation’s focus on creating
economic opportunities for individuals globally. The Foundation is also
committed to helping people live better through philanthropic efforts in
the areas of sustainability and community. Sam’s Club has a long history
of giving back to the communities we serve through product donations,
grants to local nonprofits and civic organizations and Associate
volunteerism. In 2014, 642 Sam’s Club locations donated the following:
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$150.9 million in cash and in-kind gifts to local nonprofits including
donating the equivalent of more than 62 million meals to Feeding
America
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$6.57M in community grants to local nonprofits focused on a variety of
causes from Hunger Relief and Nutrition to Environmental Sustainability
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247,000 associate volunteer hours resulting in $3.73M in donations to
local nonprofits
In 2015, Sam’s Club is a Bronze Sponsor of the SBA’s National Small
Business Week, a Diamond Sponsor for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s
America’s Small Business Summit and Dream Big Small Business of the Year
Award program and leading sponsor of the YEA!
Young Entrepreneurs Academy, which provides entrepreneurial
education to grade school students in more than 100 U.S. communities.
For more information on Sam’s Club’s investment in our communities, read
the recently released 2015
Global Responsibility Report.
About Sam’s Club and the Sam’s Club Giving
Program
Sam’s Club, the nation’s eighth largest retailer and a leading U.S.
membership club, offers savings and surprises to millions of members in
649 U.S. club locations and at SamsClub.com. The Sam’s Club Giving
Program, established by the Walmart Foundation in 2008, has granted $18
million to date in support of micro- and small business prosperity,
economic mobility and opportunity. For more information on national or
local giving by Sam’s Club or the Sam’s Club Giving Program, visit
SamsClub.com/giving.
Contacts:
Sam’s Club Media Relations
Carrie Foster Moore, 1-800-331-0085
SamsClub.com/newsroom
Source: Sam’s Club
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