The Post-Election Outlook for Local Investment
V.2, N.59
Whatever you think about the results of this week’s election, I encourage you to stop agonizing, moping, or spiking the football. Instead, start planning what comes next. In last week’s MSJ Extra!, available to our paying readers, Woodie Neiss reflected on the history of the JOBS Act of 2012 that legalized investment crowdfunding. Initial support came from House Republicans, and gradually, Senate Democrats came around. If history repeats itself, the new Republican government might help re-energize our efforts to further reduce barriers to local investment, local funds, local stock exchanges, and local pension funds.
Our lead story notes that Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, has formally introduced The Empowering Main Street in America Act, which would allow more investors and more companies to use the tools of grassroots investment. House Republicans passed a version earlier in the year, and now there’s an opening for implementation. We should recruit Democrats to support this bill and create a real bipartisan accomplishment in 2025.
Another article we highlight in this issue, from Bark Media, features an interview with Ken Laroe, CEO of Climate First Bank, based in Florida. Customers around the country can digitally deposit funds in the bank and see their money being lent to solar and other renewable energy projects. Since May 2022, the bank has booked $110 million in solar loans.
There’s much to admire in what Climate First Bank is doing. It’s providing a profitable model for the banking sector to abandon climate-destructive fossil fuel loans. It pays handsome interest rates to its customers, has hired a diverse staff, donates to LGBTQ+ nonprofits, and offers a generous employee stock-ownership plan. These features have earned it recognition as a certified B-Corp and membership in the Global Alliance for Banking on Values.
But something is missing: Place. National banks, by definition, move capital from depositors in one community to projects in another, often from rural to urban locales and from distressed to better-off communities. As a next step, Climate First Bank should strive to make sure that loans are made in places where the depositors live. Better still, they can consider creative ways of bringing community participation into the bank’s decision-making. For example, Bendigo Bank in Australia offers rural communities opportunities to run their own branches under the company’s oversight. The point is that socially responsible financiers everywhere should begin to think more carefully about local ownership.
As for the other articles you’ll find in this issue:
Next City has an excellent retrospective on how community capital has helped areas devastated by disasters—hurricanes, tornados, and floods—recover more quickly and equitably.
A new documentary, Equity and Ownership, follows the work of Napoleon Wallace in promoting financial innovations in North Carolina to support African-American communities—even after he developed ALS.
New data from Kingscrowd shows that more than half the dollars invested over the last year in equity crowdfunding are in common stock shares that provide very few shareholder rights. The remaining dollars are split evenly between preferred shared and SAFE notes.
If you like what we’re doing here, please upgrade to paid. We plan to start putting some of our content behind a paywall in 2025 to make sure we can pay our bills, so why not give a few Christmas gifts today?
- Michael Shuman, Publisher
NEWS
Support for The Empowering Main Street in America Act, Crowdfund Insider (October 15)
Climate First Bank: Changing Finance to Finance Change, Bark Media (October 24)
Disaster Cooperativism, Next City (October 22)
Napoleon Wallace and the Reconstruction of Black Wealth, ImpactAlpha (October 20)
Investment Crowdfunding’s Most Popular Security Types, Kingcrowd (October 20)
Jump to a Section:
✔️ News from NC3
✔️ Partner News & Voices
✔️ Events
✔️ Jobs Board
✔️ Asks
WHAT YOU MISSED IN THE LAST MSJ EXTRA!
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! Contact NC3 for support integrating local investing in your work: info@nc3now.org.
NC3 UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
NC3 will be presenting at two events in Michigan this week. On Thursday, November 7, we will give a keynote presentation to the Michigan Economic Developer Association Fall Conference: Economic Development Strategies and Solutions. Friend of NC3 David Palmer will moderate a 'fireside chat' with NC3 Chair Chris Miller about community capital in general and Diversified Community Investment Funds in specific. On Friday, November 8, Chris will present on housing at a University of Michigan event at the Detroit branch of the Chicago Fed. The event title is Detroit Homeownership Summit: Pathways & Policies, and Chris will speak on leveraging and making community investors the primary stakeholders in helping to build needed housing in Detroit.
Interested in NC3’s Community Investment Funds? Looking for an opportunity to talk about them in a participant-friendly and no-cost environment? Join NC3 for a facilitated resource-sharing discussion with others interested in their own CIFs and/or who are considering joining our Accelerator Program. Participants lead the discussion topics, and the open space offers relationship-building and multi-faceted support. Reach out if you would like to be included in our next meeting via info@nc3now.org.
PARTNER NEWS & VOICES
Employee-Ownership Policy Win in the UK, eoa (October 30)
Sweden’s Housing Co-ops Offer a Model for Moderate-Income Housing, Shelterforce (October 25)
Help Rebuild Asheville, Neighborhood Economics (October 24)
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. Remember that all investments are risky, so click on the hyperlinks and read all the details carefully before investing.)
Three of Strong Spirits (Portland, ME) - StartEngine: Distillery that makes all-natural gin, rum, and ready-to-drink cocktails. Employees, visitors, and East Bayside neighbors are all a part of the Three of Strong community.
NOTABLE NEW RESOURCES
Community Capital Live: Jake Ide of VT Community Loan Fund (November 6)
B Corps Brand Awareness, B Lab (October 17)
ABCs of the New Economy Festival, Stir to Action (October 17)
MSJ EVENTS
Community Capital Live: Lyneir Richardson of Chicago TREND - Virtual Event: November 20, at 2 pm ET
MORE EVENTS
Getting Up To Speed: Complying With Beneficial Ownership Regulation - Virtual Event: November 12, at 2 pm ET
Money & Banking for a Regenerative Economy - Virtual Event: Begins on November 13
Slow Money: A Call to Farms - In-Person Event (Providence, RI): November 13 - 14
Small Business Anti-Displacement Network: Summit on Community Ownership - Virtual Event: November 14
Impact Cherub Club Meeting - Virtual Event: November 19, at 1 pm ET
Measuring What Matters: Connecting Economic Prosperity with Household Well-Being - In-Person Event (New York, NY): November 20
Remaking the Economy: Liberating Finance to Build a More Just World - Virtual Event: November 20, at 2 pm ET
SuperCrowdHour - Virtual Event: November 20, at 1 pm ET
Crowdfund Better Certified Advisor WA Training Cohort Info Session - Virtual Event: November 21, at 2 pm ET
Ujima Fund 2024 Business & Investor Relations Gathering - In-Person Event (Roxbury, MA): November 22, at 6 pm ET
JOBS BOARD
Center for Economic Democracy: Policy and Research Director
Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Associate Director of Development
Project Equity: Content Manager
ASKS
If you or your community has a project on local investment or local economies that needs help, please let us know. We invite our readers to assist each other.
We invite you to celebrate Plaid Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Plaid Friday celebrates the diversity and creativity of local and independent businesses. It’s a fun alternative to the “Black Friday” consumer frenzy. Also, it’s a way to show your support for your local economy and commitment to the Choose Indie Local movement. So, plan to wear PLAID on November 29.
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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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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. Please send ideas to Jen Risley at jen@main-street-journal.com.
Our Team:
Michael Shuman – Publisher
Jen Risley - Editor
Wendy Wasserman - 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 Capital Lab | 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.