Can SourceFunding.org Level the Playing Field for Entrepreneurs?

Pictured: Janet Davas, founder of Hatch consultancy.

Excerpt from 11/4/2016 article by Janet Davas at Hatch consultancy.

Small businesses have the power to be a catalyst of transformation for our communities – and our economy. They also employ half of the nation’s private sector workforce and have created roughly two-thirds of net new jobs since 1995. Although interest rates have been kept at historically low levels by the Federal Reserve since the Great Recession began in 2008 in order to spur loan activity and borrowing to grow the economy, a major barrier cited by small businesses – especially non-traditional entrepreneurs – continues to be access to low cost capital.

“These barriers are especially true for women, veteran, and minority-owned companies who tend to be denied credit, receive lesser loan amounts, pay higher interest rates, and continue to remain in need of funding.”

Our Commitment to Action: Financial Inclusion & Economic Empowerment

Photo: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed Speaking at Opening Plenary of Clinton Global Initiative.

Press Release via Global Social Enterprise Institute:

ATLANTA, GEORGIA (JUNE 2016) — Entrepreneur and economic development specialist W. Michael Short was invited to the Clinton Global Initiative Summit in Atlanta, GA, to announce the expansion of SourceFunding.org and the FundingNavigator℠ as a 2016 Clinton Foundation-sponsored "Commitment to Action."

Pictured: W. Michael Short, founder of SourceFunding.org , with President Clinton.

Recognized for socially responsible "FinTech Innovation" in the Business & Management Review and highlighted at the Obama White House, SourceFunding.org is a tech-enabled venture focused on bridging the opportunity divide for the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. so they can expand, create jobs, & transform communities.

SourceFunding.org is the nation's first low-cost matchmaking platform connecting small businesses with the 14,000+ responsible community banks, credit unions, CDFIs, & economic development financing opportunities in the U.S.

SourceFunding.org merges unparalleled access to the nation's financing opportunities with the nation's first universal e-application for small business funding. The proprietary system improves loan application outcomes, reduces friction for businesses seeking financing, protects the credit scores of small business applicants, and provides the nation's first viable alternative to the many predatory online lenders.

SourceFunding.org is scaling up the successful SourceFunding.org pilot by GSEI and award-winning Short Enterprises from 2011-2015, which facilitated access to $10 million in capital for high impact ventures and initiatives in a community with the nation’s highest levels of poverty concentration.

The platform's national expansion was planned in collaboration with university partners in the Ashoka U Accelerator and with the support of founding investor Janet Davas, mentor with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and founder of Hatch, LLC, & nationally recognized Liberty's Kitchen.

"We're especially thankful for the support of the brilliant team at the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation like David Wilkinson and fellow Syracuse University graduate Laura Tomasko," said W. Michael Short. "We're also very thankful for the incredibly inspiring team at Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation like Dan Goldberg, Stacey Pellegrino, Geoffrey Wnuk, Rose Tobiassen, Shital Patel, Ruchi Bhargava, Kimberly Lovett, and many others."

"The national expansion announcement was also made possible by our involvement in the Ashoka U Accelerator, which helped us refine our model and formulate our CGI Commitment to include a significant focus on empowering the next generation of high impact entrepreneurs that are unable to access the funding needed to launch and grow their ventures," said Short. "The Ashoka U Commons Accelerator is a world-class program."

Click here to read the original article from Global Social Enterprise Institute.