All I want for Christmas is a no-interest loan
V.2, N.10
It’s hard to believe that Christmas commercials are already saturating the airwaves. The holiday spirit drew my attention to our lead article on how philanthropists are using no-interest microloans to aid homeless individuals. In Los Angeles, Adam Miller, a software gazillionaire, is piloting the Short-Term Eviction Prevention Fund to make loans to people facing imminent eviction using a revolving loan fund model. Over 40 loans have been issued so far – each one helping a family afford their “forever home”.
This kind of “fund” merits broader consideration. As my colleagues and I at the National Coalition for Community Capital pointed out in our handbook on community investment funds, the Investment Company Act of 1940 generally makes it difficult and expensive to create a community investment fund. One widely used exemption (which means a lighter regulatory burden) is to run the fund through a nonprofit. But another clever work-around is to create a fund that charges no interest on the loans – which in turn exempts the transaction from the oppressive world of securities law. Better still, have “investors” donate money into the fund, which immunizes the fund completely from lawyers and regulators. This is the essential design of our partner Slow Money’s Beetcoin fund, which has invested more than $80 million to over 800 small organic farms and food businesses since 2010.
You too could be an investment angel by creating your own fund – on your own or with neighbors – and extend no-interest loans to the most deserving people and causes near you. This is certainly more in the spirit of St. Nick than giving your ungrateful cousin his eighth pair of Nikes.
Also in this issue is a description of a new corporate design called the Open Collective, which leans into the “Exit to Community” strategy – a path for startups to become owned and controlled by users, workers, and stakeholders who value and depend on the startup. It’s a great way to keep a company on mission. Patagonia, for example, recently did this by converting its billion-dollar enterprise into a “perpetual purpose trust”.
A third set of articles is on community land trusts. In rural Missouri and in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, organizers are building cooperative structures to increase the trusts’ self-reliance on food, energy, and water which in turn, reduce residents’ costs.
Finally, you will find pieces on the need to reinvent real estate ownership (complementing our issue last week on how cooperative housing can fight inflation); a great new worker-owned cleaning cooperative in New York City; and the emergence of community wealth building (including local investing) in Northern Ireland.
In the spirit of giving, one final ask: If you like The Main Street Journal, please encourage five friends to subscribe. Just forward this email. It costs nothing, but will help expand our community and influence.
- Michael Shuman, Publisher, The Main Street Journal
NEWS
No-Interest Micro Loans: Philanthropist’s New Tool In Preventing Homelessness, Los Angeles Times (October 22)
Startups Have a Sellout Problem. There's a Better Way, Wired (October 29)
A Community In Rural Missouri Seeks A More Sustainable Future, Flatland (October 19)
Lower East Side Organizers Look To Launch New Community Land Trusts, The Indypendent (October 21)
Want To Shift Power? We Need To Take On Real Estate, Nonprofit Quarterly (October 26)
New York Cleaners Create New Path To Entrepreneurship, BBC (October 26)
Recommendations To Advance Community Wealth Building In Northern Ireland, Department for Communities (October 27)
PARTNER VOICES
Social Enterprises Benefit From Adjustments To Regulation Crowdfund Limits, Cutting Edge Capital (October 21)
National Co-op Leaders Seek Solutions For Barriers To Growth, Nonprofit Quarterly (October 26)
Community Wealth Building Approach Takes Root In Northern Ireland, Democracy Collaborative (October 28)
Providing 0% Interest Pre-Acquisition Financing Support To BIPOC And Women, New Majority Capital (September 2022)
Total Impact Summit 2023: Investing For People, Planet, And Place, ImpactPHL (Save the date for May 1-2, 2023)
EVENTS
Crowdfunding: Building Up Place Based Capital In Philly – Webinar. Tuesday, November 8, 1-2pm ET. There is currently a movement, in Philadelphia, that believes crowdfunding is a critical financial element in the financial success and stability of socially impactful businesses. Panelists will investigate whether groups that have historically been underrepresented in capital markets gain additional access to capital markets through crowdfunding. Register here.
Remaking the Economy: Redefining Leadership – Webinar. Thursday, November 10, 2pm ET. Featuring Seema Agnani (National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development), Tony Pickett (Grounded Solutions), and Dr. Akilah Watkins (Center for Community Progress), panelists in this webinar will discuss what are the kinds of leadership that the field needs to advance not only economic justice, but liberation. Register here.
42nd Annual E.F. Schumacher Lecture – Lecture. Saturday, November 12, 2pm ET. 'Renegade' economist Kate Raworth will deliver the 42nd Annual E.F. Schumacher Lecture. Raworth is an ecological economist focused on making economics fit for 21st century realities. Her international best-selling book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist, has been translated into more than 20 languages. Register here.
Democratizing Work: The Role, Opportunities, and Challenges of Worker Cooperatives in the US – Webinar. Thursday, November 17, 2-3:15pm ET. This is part of a 3-part series, Employee Ownership’s Moment: Conversations to Advance Policy and Practice, hosted by the Aspen Institute. In this first conversation, we will be discussing worker-owned cooperatives in the US including their history, the research on the benefits and challenges of cooperatives, the role they play in our economy and democracy, how they fit within the wider field of employee ownership, and ideas to support their growth. Register here.
ICYMI
5 Ideas On How Local Government Can Support Local Business, Open Access Government (October 21)
Q&A: An 'Exit To Community' Offers Startups A Different Path, PitchBook (October 21)
How DC Can Leverage The Tenant Right To Purchase To Achieve Housing Justice, Nonprofit Quarterly (October 26)
JOBS BOARD
Project Equity is hiring a Product Manager.
Fair Food Network is hiring for multiple positions on their impact investing team.
Mission Driven Finance is hiring for multiple positions.
BECOME A MAIN STREET CHAMPION
Have you always wanted to start a local investment club? A website of local investment offerings in your community? A local investment study group? Whatever your interest or ambition, we invite you to “go public” to help others in your region find you, scheme with you, and start a local investment movement in your community. Our goal is to identify dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of Main Street Champions like you across America. We already have Main Street Champions across the U.S., from San Luis Obispo, CA to Providence, RI, and even Australia! Together, we can move our hard-earned savings from Wall Street back into our communities. Fill out the intake survey below to join this growing cohort!
SOME OF MSJ’s VINTAGE ISSUES
About The Main Street Journal
The Main Street Journal aims to catalyze the movement of $50 trillion from Wall Street to Main Street to facilitate economic development and economic justice. It’s sponsored by the National Coalition for Community Capital, with a grant from the Heron Foundation. We welcome feedback about everything, from our design to content. And we welcome suggestions of other groups to involve as partners, and other information to include. Please send ideas to Sophia Leswing at sophia@main-street-journal.com.
PARTNERS
We welcome any nonprofit or for-profit committed to local investment as a partner. If your organization is interested, please contact Sophia Leswing at sophia@main-street-journal.com.