Syracuse University’s #1 ranked S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications featured SourceFunding.org in its latest article, which highlights the platform’s recent surge in growth.
“Newhouse School instrumental in expansion of multibillion-dollar economic development initiative”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 19, 2018) - Multi-billion dollar economic development initiatives launched in 2014 and 2015 at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and with the support of the Public Diplomacy Program in 2016 continue to grow and are now supporting the expansion of over 50,000 startups, small businesses, nonprofits, and community development organizations nationwide by matching them with the best sources of funding for their particular circumstances and stage of growth.
The national economic development initiatives, first recognized in 2014 by Huffington Post (“A New Platform for Social Enterprise Startups in the U.S.”), have evolved into a cloud-based financial and database technology venture known as SourceFunding.org thanks to the early support of over 100 Newhouse students and faculty, both the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Le Moyne College’s Madden School of Business, and numerous other university, foundation, and banking partners nationally.
Founded by technology entrepreneur and Newhouse alumnus W. Michael Short, and with a growing leadership team that includes SU grads Sara Brainard and Brian Cronin, SourceFunding.org was featured as a Forbes Editors’ Pick for leveling the playing field for small businesses, highlighted for economic and community impact at the White House, compared with Amazon as a marketplace for business finance on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and noted for socially responsible “FinTech Innovation” in the Business & Management Review.
SourceFunding.org is the only online platform providing a software as a service (SaaS) matching entrepreneurs, startups, businesses, nonprofits and community development organizations with the Responsible Finance Network™, which includes all of the 14,323 community banks, credit unions, non-profit lenders and community development financial institutions in the United States.
Using advanced matchmaking algorithms and artificial intelligence, the platform speeds up the business financing search and application process and provides a trusted and transparent alternative to the growing number of predatory online lenders and brokers that are plaguing the nation's businesses with hidden fees, astronomical rates, misleading information, and hindering broader economic growth, job creation, and business development nationally.
“SourceFunding.org makes economics and finance interesting, fun, and understandable as it offers entrepreneurs an array of funding options so they can avoid online predatory lenders,” said Joe Connolly, host of News Radio WCBS 880 Small Business Spotlight. He then described the platform as “a dating service for entrepreneurs looking for funding” and compared it with popular dating application Tinder, which is operated along with Match.com by $12 billion dollar Match Group, Inc.
One of the many entrepreneurs benefiting from the SourceFunding.org matchmaking platform is Ashley Warmington of Brooklyn, NY, founder of award-winning tech company Cozy Oasis and recent graduate of Medgar Evers College School of Business where SourceFunding.org currently operates a field office.
Using the funding secured with the help of SourceFunding.org, Ashley expanded her company and created jobs in her local community. Ashley’s tech company is now the top ranked AirBnB property management company in New York City.
“Searching for financing to grow my company took a lot of time away from my business and each lender handed me a big stack of application forms,” said Ms. Warmington. “SourceFunding.org matched me with the right funding from the most trusted source on the first attempt, which saved significant time and money.”
This challenge of finding the right lender is experienced by nearly all entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits in the United States - especially in historically underserved communities. On average, businesses spend over 100 hours completing loan applications without ever knowing if they are applying to a lender that actually matches their particular circumstances. As a result, roughly 8,000 business loan applications are declined in the U.S. every single day, which economists describe as a “massive market failure.”
“Entrepreneurs and small businesses face significant barriers in accessing the financing needed to grow and create jobs especially in underserved communities,” said Dr. Jo-Ann Rolle, dean of the School of Business at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. “This is a reality we contend with on a daily basis while supporting entrepreneurs both on campus and in the community, and our work with SourceFunding.org is designed to streamline that process in order to level the playing field for all entrepreneurs."
To address this challenge, SourceFunding.org is providing platform access to several thousand chambers of commerce, small business development centers (SBDCs), economic development organizations, and community colleges so that they will be able to help entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits identify funding options on an ongoing basis, with immediate results, through a complimentary account provided by SourceFunding.org.
“The Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York, was so crucial in helping me launch and grow several ventures, including SourceFunding.org, and I’m thankful for the support provided over the years by the center and its incredible director Joan Powers,” explained W. Michael Short. “Now we are able to return the favor by providing access to our platform to entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits in order to support communities nationwide.”
This motivation, to support communities and hard-working entrepreneurs throughout the country, is what inspired founder W. Michael Short to build SourceFunding.org.
