Oregon Microenterprise Network

Click here to read the Kauffman Foundation Research Series report on “The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction.”

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued an amended NoFA for PRIME that includes the following updates to the original NoFA:

1. Provide interested entities with the opportunity to apply for funding under any of the three PRIME tracks as follows:

• Track 1 Funding for provision of business based technical assistance for disadvantaged Microentrepreneurs
• Track 2 Funding for Capacity Building
• Track 3 Funding for Research and Development of Best Practices in the Field of Microenterprise Development

2. Application deadline extended to July 30th, 2010.

To view the full program announcement, click here.  Applications must be submitted online at www.grants.gov.

For more information about the PRIME program, visit the SBA’s website here:
http://www.sba.gov/financialassistance/prospectivelenders/prime/index.html

Innovations in Asset-Building: Learning from $aveNYC
Wednesday, July 21 from 2 – 3:30pm EDT

Please join us for a webinar on a pioneering strategy for connecting low-income households, including the self-employed, to asset-building opportunities. Tax time represents a unique opportunity to help low income households, including the self employed, to save for the future. Throughout the United States, the thousands of free tax assistance sites have long struggled to connect low and moderate income families with asset building opportunities, while staying true to their mission of delivering high quality tax preparation services.

Since 2008, the City of New York has offered low income tax filers a unique matched savings opportunity called the $aveNYC Account. The $aveNYC Account provides a 50 percent match to filers at select free tax preparation sites who commit to a full year of savings. This initiative is intended to test the impact of an innovative policy idea: using tax-linked savings incentives to leverage medium-term savings for consumer-designated purposes. This initiative is designed for those tax filers who generally receive a significant tax refund.

This webinar will present a basic overview of the $aveNYC initiative, preliminary findings from the first two years of implementation and provide concrete suggestions for implementing similar asset building programs at tax sites throughout the country. You will also hear from Ariva, a South Bronx-based nonprofit that has participated in the $aveNYC initiative for the past two years, for both their wage-earning and self-employed customers.

This webinar is appropriate for practitioners who want to create new asset-building programs for this tax season.

Speakers will include representatives from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) and from Ariva, a South Bronx-based nonprofit that filed more than 800 free tax returns for self-employed filers and opened 302 $aveNYC accounts this year. Ariva is a CFED local partner in the Self-Employment Tax Initiative (SETI). OFE is the first local government initiative in the nation with a mission to educate, empower, and protect residents with low incomes so they can build assets and make the most of their financial resources.

Register Now!

To register for the Innovations in Asset-Building Webinar, click here. There is no cost to participate, but advanced registration is required. For more information, please contact Patrick Hain (202.207.0141, phain@cfed.org).