(Rose Jaspersen, Ed Kentch, and Justin Sixel)
 

Program Sustainability is Topic of NMPF Training
The Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund (NMPF) conducted a grantee/borrower training in Omaha on August 24th. A total of twenty-five practitioner program staff and others attended the daylong training.

The training started with a Federal Reserve Bank – Omaha Branch breakfast. Agnes Noonan of WESST Corp. in New Mexico reviewed the Individual Development Account (IDA) program they have started for small businesses. Rose Jaspersen presented historical background on IDA efforts in Nebraska and participants discussed the possibilities for a statewide IDA effort in the state.

Following the breakfast, participants moved to the main conference hall to hear a welcome from Congressman Lee Terry. After that introduction, the NMPF training was held in an adjoining room.

Agnes Noonan started the training with a presentation on building sustainability and efficiency in a micro program. WESST Corp. has seen both success and failure in program development over the years and those lessons learned were shared with participants.

Karen Mavropoulos, Ed Leahy and Rose Jaspersen provided an update on the tax literacy/tax credit pilot work in Nebraska. Now that Catholic Charities Juan Diego Center has conducted a pilot in tax preparation, the next step is to plan a statewide pilot. Several ideas for what could be involved in a pilot were shared. Participants were encouraged to get back to NMPF to express their interest in participating in a pilot and to share the components they feel should be included.

Additional discussion topics for the day included next steps for collecting Outcomes data, identifying business profile candidates, use of a secure website for collecting program data and an update of state and federal policy work.

Participants were reminded that the Nebraska Enterprise Opportunity Network (NEON) will be holding its annual conference at Mahoney Park on December 6th.
 

CFED Partner of the Month: Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund (NMPF)
The Nebraska Microenterprise Partnership Fund (NMPF) is a statewide microenterprise intermediary serving microenterprise development organizations (MDO’s) in urban and rural Nebraska. These MDO’s are community-based organizations that provide loans, training and technical assistance to microenterprises (those businesses with five or fewer employees). The non-profit organization was founded in 1994 to provide sustainable funding (grants and loans) for MDO’s. NMPF became a Certified Development Financial Institution in 1997. It is the mission of NMPF to make sure Nebraska micro and small businesses have access to capital, training and technical assistance.

NMPF provides services around five main areas –
Fundraising – NMPF mobilizes and leverages grant and loan dollars from strategic local, state and national resources. For example, the Nebraska Legislature recently approved funding for microenterprise development at $1.5M for each of the next two years. This is triple the amount of the previous high funding. NMPF worked with the Nebraska Enterprise Opportunity Network (NEON), Nebraska’s statewide microenterprise association, and other supportive organizations to bring about this funding.

Rose Jaspersen, NMPF Executive Director, shared accomplishments in microenterprise development work with Nebraska State Senators and staff at a Legislative breakfast.
Strategic Funding – NMPF supports MDO’s through grants to cover operating costs and loans for use in lending to microenterprises.

Capacity Building – NMPF offers twice a year trainings for MDO’s on various topics that build the capacity of the organizations to reach more businesses. In addition, NMPF provides technical assistance to MDO’s, answering day-to-day questions and assisting with longer term planning.


 

Jeff Dousharm received loans and technical assistance from Community Development Resources in Lincoln. Jeff now has six TaeKwonDo Academy sites in Lincoln, Omaha and Florida and employs 25 people. Jeff said, “Being self-employed has provided me the opportunity to be well compensated for my work. I chose to make it or lose everything…but it was not left up to chance, it was left up to me and with the right support (from a micro program), I made it. My profession is the greatest opportunity I have ever been given and I enjoy doing it more than most people enjoy vacation.”

Evaluation – NMPF gathers data from MDO’s quarterly regarding their work with businesses. This information is then provided in a yearly Report to the Legislature. During the nine year history of gathering data, over 16,000 individuals have received services (loans, training and/or technical assistance).

Research and Product Development - NMPF leads initiatives to develop new products to meet the needs of MDO’s and microenterprises. For example, NMPF partnered with CFED and NEON to produce the Microenterprise Information Referral System (MIRS), a monthly electronic directory provided to legislators, bankers, community development staff, micro programs, and others to make them aware of where services for micro businesses in their area can be found. At the current time, NMPF is partnering with cfed on a self-employed tax preparation pilot project in South Omaha. This work has statewide and national implications for the future. Gene Severens, of CFED, has provided key research to support the concept of a tax credit for first-time filers of Schedule C and is currently discussing the possibility with Congressmen in Washington, DC.

Karen Mavropolous, Director of Catholic Charities Juan Diego Center in South Omaha, and Gene Severens of CFED presented a workshop on assisting first-time filers with Schedule C to statewide microenterprise system staff in Washington, DC.