Sam’s Club Giving Program Gives $13.6 Million in Grants to Improve Economic Mobility for Small Business Owners
May 05 2015 - 10:00AM
Business Wire
Five-year plan aims to bolster community
lending resources and unlock access to affordable capital for
America’s underserved small business owners
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:
- 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
- Unlock $100 million in new capital from
non-bank, community lending resources to low- and moderate- income
small business owners through 2019
- Support 28,000 jobs in the small
business community
- 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:
Partner
Grant
Amount
Program
Accion U.S. Network $1.8 million
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
Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO)
$2.5 million
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
The Aspen Institute - Fund for
Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination
(FIELD)
$450,000
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
Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF)
$500,000
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
National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders
(NALCAB) $2 million
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
The Opportunity Fund $750,000
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
VEDC
(Valley Economic Development
Center)
$2 million
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
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:
- $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
- $6.57M in community grants to local
nonprofits focused on a variety of causes from Hunger Relief and
Nutrition to Environmental Sustainability
- 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.
Sam’s Club Media RelationsCarrie Foster Moore,
1-800-331-0085SamsClub.com/newsroom
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