Independence Requires Healthy Independents!

V.2, N.51

Happy Independence Day! And—on Saturday—Happy International Cooperatives Day!

Enjoy your fireworks, BBQs, and libations, but don’t forget what the holiday is all about. American freedom is uniquely grounded in its local businesses. These businesses and other locally rooted institutions like hospitals, universities, and municipal governments are responsible for 60-80% of the jobs in the country (depending on how you define “local”). And every time you mindfully buy from or invest in a locally owned business, you make your community just a little stronger and a little freer.

This freedom is increasingly under threat from global corporations, monopolies, and oligopolies. I highly recommend Senator Amy Klobuchar’s 2021 book Antitrust: Taking Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age. She reviews early American history and shows how much our escape from King George III was a repudiation of centralized political and economic power. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a rebellion against a crown-granted monopoly called the East India Company. Our Founding Fathers expressly denounced monopolies—James Madison called them “among the greatest nuisances in Government.” Maryland’s first Constitution condemned them, as did North Carolina’s.

Our first story, from the New York Times, shows how independent bookstores have reinvigorated themselves against Amazon by becoming cooperatives and thriving community centers: “From Los Angeles to Baltimore, these cooperatives have become indispensable anchors in neighborhoods suffering from widening wealth gaps, housing insecurity, and racial violence…” They are serving as food banks, addiction treatment centers, advocacy hubs, and contraception distribution points.

Here’s the other news you’ll find in this issue:

• “Assets in Common” is a great new resource showing cutting-edge examples of organizing business. For example, Carpet One is a producer cooperative unifying 4,000 independent flooring stores.

• The Native CDFI Network has unified 63 small lenders in Indian Country to secure a $400 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of expanding renewable energy on reservations.

• The challenges of wealth inequality remain profound. A recent study on the “Color of Wealth in Chicago” found that the median net wealth figures for families in the Windy City were $210,000 for white families, $40,500 for U.S.-born Mexican families, $24,000 for Puerto Rican families, and $0 for black families.

• Finally, a report from Forvis Mazars notes that firms that successfully raise capital through investment crowdfunding have lower failure rates than other businesses.

We also introduce a new section called “Asks” in this issue. If you or your community has a project on local investment that needs help, please let us know. We invite our readers to assist each other.

Speaking of Independence Day, please help us become more independent by subscribing to our paid version—the MSJ Extra! Here’s a handy link.

As we announced previously, we now welcome sponsors for each issue of The Main Street Journal as a way of paying our bills. Let us know what you think of this idea. And if you want to sponsor an issue yourself, please reach out!

Finally, it’s rare that this nonreligious Jew quotes a Mormon, but heck, we’re all in this together. I’m inspired today by Brigham Young: “True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.”

~ Michael Shuman, Publisher

NEWS

• The Rise of Worker-Owned Bookstores, The New York Times (June 10)

• Infrastructure for Shared Ownership, Shareable (June 11)

• Native Nations Join Forces to Build Sustainable Economies, Nonprofit Quarterly (June 26)

• Median Net Wealth for Chicago Black Families: $0, Block Club Chicago (June 18)

• Accredited Investor Definition Changes? Forvis Mazars (June 13)

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Independents Month celebrates Indie Locals (independent and locally owned businesses) and entrepreneurship. Learn more!

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Jump to a Section:

✔️ News from NC3

✔️ Partner News & Voices

✔️ Events

✔️ Jobs Board

✔️ Asks

WHAT YOU MISSED IN LAST WEEK’S MSJ EXTRA!

If you ever watched the 2015 French documentary Demain (which means “tomorrow”), you may recall a section focusing on a local currency in the British City of Bristol. With nearly half a million residents, the city became the home of the Bristol Pound, one of the boldest recent experiments with homegrown money. In 2018, with the currency declining after its original meteoric success, a new managing director was brought in to try to turn things around. That person was Diana Finch, and she wrote about her experiences in a new book, Value Beyond Money, which will be available on August 1st. We’re pleased to interview her this week.

MS: Diana, congratulations on the publication of your important new book. Who is the book aimed at, and why did you decide to write it?

DF: I wanted to write the book as a legacy for the work of the organization I loved. We had so much learning from our experiences, and it seemed mean not to share that. I also wanted to write something that explains why people like the founders felt it was so important to develop the Bristol Pound. Though the currency was famous around the world with those interested in alternative currencies, back at home with everyday folk in Bristol, most people didn’t really understand what we were doing or why. 

How our current economic system damages people and the planet should be everybody’s concern. So, this book is not at all academic. Rather, it is an easy introductory book for people without any knowledge of economics or financial systems, but who are curious. Maybe they keep listening to news bulletins—they hear politicians talking about the need for economic growth in one news item, and two seconds later, they hear about devastating climate change and biodiversity loss, or poverty and hunger, or mass migration and war, and they wonder whether the rhetoric of growth is really the answer. On top of that, it’s a practical guide for those who want to learn more about the reality of working in alternative currencies. 

MS: Tell us about the Bristol Pound. At its height of success, how did it work?

DF: The idea was that people exchanged their normal money (pounds sterling) into Bristol Pounds, and those Bristol Pounds could then only be spent with local businesses. Businesses could spend that money only with other local businesses. Local taxes could also be paid in the local currency, which was a global first. The local council procured some of its services in Bristol Pounds, including the refurbishment of City Hall. We had paper and digital money, and when it first came out, it was the only way you could pay using a mobile phone. So it was very cutting edge, and the currency really helped put Bristol on the map globally. 

MS: How many residents would you reckon were using the Bristol Pound, and how much currency was in circulation? And what were some of the indicators of success?

DF: At its height, the Bristol Pound was accepted in 600 shops around the city and had a couple of thousand users. Something like a million pounds per year was transacted in the currency. In percentage terms, with a city of 600,000 residents, that may seem small, but for a community currency, it was huge! I think we were mainly focused on those numbers in the early days as metrics of success. Most of those indicators peaked in 2015 or 2016. 

Of course, many people ask whether it was successful in its aims, such as encouraging localization, building community wealth, and reducing CO2 emissions from the transportation of goods. In reality, it’s really hard to know whether we made a difference. It was hard enough to get people to try using the currency, let alone to get them to give us additional information about the precise changes in their shopping habits to enable us to calculate the wider impacts. 

At the macro scale, we certainly didn’t create an impact on anything. We had maybe 0.02% of the population using the currency to the tune of, on average, £50 (about $63) in any given month in 2015. Clearly, that is not enough to change the dial on city-wide stats on localization, community wealth building, or transport-related CO2.

SPONSOR CORNER

The National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3) is dedicated to educating, advocating, and activating community capital—and serves as MSJ's fiscal sponsor. Thank you for being a part of a growing movement! Be sure to reach out to us for support integrating local investing in your work: info@nc3now.org.

NC3 UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

• NC3 has been working since December 2023 with a team of highly successful music industry professionals on a visionary project in Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Music Collective (DMC) seeks to create a true ‘Music City’ in Detroit. While known for the global impact of Motown, Detroit has never had the fundamental elements of a true music city. The DMC is out to change that. Among their goals are a music school that would provide certificate programs and master classes, an artist-owned co-op record label with full production and manufacturing capabilities, an artist management division with consultation and mentoring, a live event and branded entertainment division, and an artist village with affordable housing for budding independent artists so they can work on their craft, not on their mortgage. The team, including NC3, will present at the SEICon 2024 event in Las Vegas in July. NC3 and the DMC are exploring creating a community investment fund that would engage community investors as part of the capital required for the project.

PARTNER NEWS & VOICES

• Colorado’s Community Solar Program, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (June 27)

• Empowering Communities Through Real Estate Crowdfunding, Superpowers for Good (June 25)

• Fostering Transatlantic Community Wealth Building Connections, Democracy Collaborative (June 21)

• Building a Guarantee Economy: A Conversation with Natalie Foster, Nonprofit Quarterly (June 12)

• Will the Revolution Be Funded? The Forge (June 11)

NEW INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Our complete list of recently posted investment opportunities has moved to MSJ Extra! As a teaser, here is an offering from our list. (Please note that our listing of these opportunities is not an endorsement, and remember that all investments are risky, so click on the hyperlinks and read all the details carefully before investing.)

• Moon Raccoon Baking Co (Denver, CO) - Honeycomb Credit: Small batch, scratch-made pastries featuring local grains and produce. (Choose Indie Pride: LGBTQ+ owned, Woman-owned).

NOTABLE NEW RESOURCES

• World Localization Day: Conversation with Darcia Narvaez, Michael Shuman, and Debra Efroymson, Local Futures (June 21)

• Just Communities Accredited Practitioner Foundations Course Registration, Partnership for Southern Equity (June 18)

• Money Map Jargon Decoder, Capital Innovation Lab (June 25)

• Unlocking Economic Opportunity Through Ownership, Project Equity (June 21)

MSJ EVENTS

• Community Capital Live: Lisa Nutter of Community Impact Investments - Virtual Event: July 17, at 2 pm ET

• Community Capital Live: Betty Francisco and Aliana Piñeiro of Boston Impact Initiative - Virtual Event: July 31, at 2 pm ET

MORE EVENTS

• How Small Businesses Can Raise Capital from the Crowd - Virtual Event: July 11 at 1 pm ET

• SuperCrowdHour: Twin Perspectives - Founder and Investor Advice for a Standout Reg CF Campaign - Virtual Event: July 17 at 1 pm ET

• Next Economy MBA Q&A Session - Virtual Event: July 23 at 3 pm ET

ICYMI

• Creating Bioregional Funding Ecosystems, Legacy Project

• The Color of Wealth Project, The New School

JOBS BOARD

• Common Future: Controller, Fund Development Manager, and Impact Investments Manager

• Healthcare Anchor Network: Impact Purchasing & Place-Based Investing Program Associate

• Honeycomb Credit: Director of Strategic Finance, Community Development Finance, and Strategic Planning

• Just Futures: Business Development Associate

• Mission Driven Finance: Fund Management and Client Services Director

• New Majority Capital: Program Manager, Program Coordinator, and more

• Project Equity: Head of Finance and Administration and Manager of the Project Management Office

ASKS

We introduce a new section called “Asks” in this issue. If you or your community has a project on local investment that needs help, please let us know. We invite our readers to assist each other.

• Request for assistance from Jessica David (Local Return): This summer, for a divinity school field education project, I am studying the intersection of money and spirituality. I want to understand how spirituality, faith, religion, or values are entangled with our financial narratives and vice versa. I am hoping to speak with people to understand how (or if!) you think about these topics. I envision these as 45-minute interviews or 1.5-hour focus groups. There are no prerequisites; you don’t need to consider yourself religious or spiritual or be a person who considers yourself competent or comfortable with money. Learn more.

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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. We aim to identify dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of Main Street Champions like you in every corner of the globe. Together, we can move our hard-earned savings from Wall Street to Main Street into our own communities. Fill out the intake survey below to join this growing cohort!

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SOME OF MSJ’s VINTAGE ISSUES

• World Localization Day

• Free to Choose… ESG

• The Growing Danger of Crowdfunding Monopolies

• Start With the Food

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 grants from the Heron Foundation, Wallace Global Foundation, and the Bondi Foundation. We welcome feedback about everything, from our design to content. Also, we welcome suggestions of other groups to involve as partners and additional information to include. Please send ideas to Jen Risley at jen@main-street-journal.com. 

Our Team:

• Michael Shuman – Publisher

• Jen Risley - Editor

• Jessica Landman - Strategic Advisor

PARTNERS

Abrams+Angell | American Independent Business Alliance | Candide Group | Capital for Change | Capital Institute | Community-Vision Solutions | Council Fire | Crowdfund Better | Crowdfund Capital Advisors | Democracy Collaborative | Exit to Community Collective | Fair Food Network | Impact Finance Center | ImpactPHL | Initiative for Local Capital | Institute for Local Self-Reliance | The Kassan Group | Mission Driven Finance | National Coalition for Community Capital | Natural Investments | Neighborhood Associates | Neighborhood Economics | New Majority Capital | Next Egg | Nonprofit Quarterly | Ownership America | Ownership Matters | Partnership for Southern Equity | PathLight Law | Project Equity | Project for Public Spaces | Prospera Partners | Raise Green | Revalue | Rising Tide Capital | Schumacher Center for a New Economics | Shelterforce | Slow Money | SOCAP | Sun Valley Institute for Resilience | The Super Crowd Inc. | Transform Finance | Uwharrie Bank | Village Well | Zebras Unite

We welcome any nonprofit or for-profit committed to local investment as a partner. If your organization is interested, please contact Jen Risley at jen@main-street-journal.com.