Photo Credit: Syracuse University
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK (March 6, 2018) - Building on long-standing collaborative efforts and initiatives with Syracuse University, providing over 150 graduate & undergraduate students to date with engaged and experiential scholarship opportunities, SourceFunding.org continues to develop its social enterprise business model with the assistance of the Community Benchmarks Program at SU’s prestigious Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs.
W. Michael Short, SourceFunding.org Founder, and Director of the International Innovators Initiative (IN2NYC) at Medgar Evers College School of Business, City University of New York (VIDEO LINK).
Highlighted in Forbes, at the New York Stock Exchange, at the White House for economic impact, and in the Business & Management Review for socially responsible innovation in financial technology, SourceFunding.org is at the forefront of a new era of hybrid social enterprises: organizations that pursue social missions that are fueled by market-based business models, integrating social and economic objectives.
"The development strategies and plans evolving from our previous work with the Community Benchmark Program in 2015 helped build a strong foundation for the successful national expansion of our hybrid social enterprise business model," said SourceFunding.org CEO W. Michael Short (SU '10 & SU Engagement Scholar '11). "We're grateful for the opportunity to build on that successful collaboration."
As noted by Huffington Post, in an article highlighting the involvement of SU in the early development of SourceFunding.org with social entrepreneur W. Michael Short, the number of social enterprises in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2006.
“The social innovators leading the hybrid movement have advanced efforts to increase accountability of both for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises by combining the best attributes of each,” writes Chris Miller, CEO of the Mission Center L3C Incubator, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. “It seems safe to assume that the vanguards of the millennial generation and hybrid movement, respectively, will continue to seek more authentic, transparent, and accountable mechanisms for changing the world.”
Specifically, university, foundation, and investor-backed SourceFunding.org expanded nationally in the U.S. to provide a trusted, transparent, & low-cost alternative to the growing number of predatory online small business lenders that are increasingly using deceptive tactics, misleading fees, and hidden costs to take advantage of entrepreneurs nationwide.
As noted by the U.S. Treasury Department, big banks cut down on their small business lending following the 2008 financial crisis & online FinTech firms stepped in to fill the unmet demand for credit. As a result, the industry boomed and is on track to lend $90 billion a year by 2020. However, according to Opportunity Fund, FinTech loans come at a substantial price with annual percentage interest rates (APRs) reaching from 94% to as high as 358%.
Karen Mills is a Fellow at the Harvard and a leading authority on entrepreneurship & online lending. She was a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, serving as the Administrator of the U.S. SBA from 2009 to 2013 (Photo: U.S. SBA).
Research published by Karen Mills, distinguished senior fellow at Harvard University who lead the U.S. SBA during the Obama Administration, points to a disconnect between traditional banks, that cite a lack of demand from qualified borrowers, and creditworthy business owners, who describe going from bank to bank unable to get a business loan. As a result, businesses are turning to predatory online lending platforms in record numbers.
SourceFunding.org provides the first & only universal small business loan application system accessing every community bank, credit union, non-profit lender, & community development financial institution (CDFI) in the U.S. with the platform's national Responsible Finance Network™ incorporating a network of over 14,000 of the nation's most trusted, transparent, & low-cost lenders.
SourceFunding.org simplifies the capital search process, streamlines the business financing application process, and eliminates over 100 hours of paperwork for entrepreneurs. Using technology to assess the particular circumstances of each entrepreneur, business venture, or organization, along with advanced matchmaking algorithms, SourceFunding.org identifies the small business lending programs that are a good fit out of all the opportunities available.
The platform’s national financial inclusion campaign and social enterprise business model includes multiple independently operated organizations operating toward a shared mission of leveling the playing field for all entrepreneurs in the U.S. in order to stimulate economic impact, community development, and job creation.
