The Nebraska Enterprise Fund (NEF) recently entered into an Equity Equivalent Investment (EQ2) with Great Western Bank, Omaha. The $100,000 EQ2 will be loaned to microenterprise programs in urban and rural Nebraska. The programs will then make loans to micro businesses.
Rose Jaspersen, NEF Executive Director said, “It is a pleasure to welcome Great Western Bank as a new investor in our loan pool. These dollars will make a difference to businesses across the state and will be important in leveraging additional funds.”
NEF would like to recognize Justin Sixel, Great Western Bank Small Business Banker; Barb Plott, Great Western Bank Vice President; and Ed Kentch, NEF Board of Directors for the roles they played in making this funding possible.
Program Sustainability is Topic of NEF Training
The Nebraska Enterprise Fund (NEF) 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 NEF 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 NEF 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 Enterprise Fund
(NEF)
The Nebraska Enterprise Fund (NEF) 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. NEF
became a Certified Development Financial Institution in 1997. It is
the mission of NEF to make sure Nebraska micro and small businesses
have access to capital, training and technical assistance.
NEF provides services around five main areas –
Fundraising – NEF 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. NEF worked with the
Nebraska Enterprise Opportunity Network (NEON), Nebraska’s statewide
microenterprise association, and other supportive organizations to
bring about this funding.
Rose Jaspersen, NEF Executive Director, shared accomplishments in
microenterprise development work with Nebraska State Senators and
staff at a Legislative breakfast.
Strategic Funding – NEF supports MDO’s through grants to cover operating costs and loans for use in lending to microenterprises.
Capacity Building – NEF offers twice a year trainings for MDO’s on various topics that build the capacity of the organizations to reach more businesses. In addition, NEF 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
enjoy doing it more than most people enjoy vacation.”
Evaluation – NEF 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 - NEF leads initiatives to develop
new products to meet the needs of MDO’s and microenterprises. For
example, NEF 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, NEF 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.