Low-income entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area will have new opportunities to secure funding to help expand their businesses and create jobs.
Chevron contributed $1 million in January to help Grameen America fund its first West Coast branch, to be located in the Bay Area. Grameen America is a nonprofit microfinance organization founded by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.
This new microfinance opportunity meets a special need in parts of the Bay Area hit hard by the economic downturn, where unemployment exceeds the region's average of 10 percent. Grameen America anticipates creating approximately 285 jobs in affected communities by helping as many as 250 borrowers with more than $300,000 in its first year of operations.
Grameen America targets clients who cannot access traditional credit, a significant portion of whom are low-income women. The organization is modeled after a peer-group system that incorporates asset-building into all loan relationships to teach financial principals that empower self-sufficiency.
"The economic slowdown has made it especially difficult to secure funding for Bay Area small businesses and micro entrepreneurs, which are often a catalyst for job creation and economic growth for the state," said Stephen Vogel, CEO of Grameen America. "Chevron's support will help hundreds of entrepreneurs realize their dream of starting their own business."
Chevron's contribution is a part of its California Partnership, an initiative that invests in economic development and education in the company's home state. Other microfinance partners include Kiva, Opportunity Fund and the Women's Initiative for Self Employment. Chevron has expanded its partnerships with more than 20 nonprofit organizations throughout California and has invested approximately $25 million year over year since the California Partnership's inception in 2009.
"The success of our company is tied directly to the economic health of our community," said Rhonda Zygocki, executive vice president, Policy and Planning for Chevron. "We believe that Grameen America will help create economic opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise."
Since Grameen America entered the U.S. in 2008, it has funded 5,000 borrowers and loaned more than $14 million.