Starbucks National Bank & Trust?
Cited: MSNBC
Starbucks is on every corner of America, and on a few sides streets too. And now, Starbucks’s banks might be there too – well, sort of. The iconic retail coffee giant has decided to do its part to help small businesses and to hopefully get them to start hiring again by teaming up with Opportunity Finance Network to get some development loan funding out to low-income communities. Opportunity Finance is a network of 180 community development institutions that help to pull money together for these depressed economic zones and now they will have a little caffeine behind the effort.
The partnership is being called Create Jobs for USA Fund, and it has already come up with $1 million in donations for this development network. For its part, Starbucks threw $5 million into the pot at the get-go, which it is hoped will be just the beginning to generate over $42 million in loans for Create Jobs for USA Fund. Individual donations are being sought around the country with those who donate $5 given a red, white, and blue wristband.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz pushed through the idea for the development funds after watching lawmakers in Washington grind to a halt every time they were trying to reduce debt levels and get the economy moving again. In fact, he pledged to withhold all contributions from Starbucks to political campaigns until the stalemate ended. Getting anyone in Washington to agree to almost anything is impossible these days and realizing this fact, Schultz decided that in addition to cutting off funds to D.C. he start a jobs initiative moving in his idea for partnering with the Opportunity Finance Network.
The rough flow of funds to jobs that Starbucks hopes will come about under the plan is as follows: Starbucks gives the money to the Opportunity Finance Network, they in turn give lend the money to a small business, and then with a little luck, jobs are created in the community where the money goes. The OFN has a great track record for return on its loan portfolio and their research indicates that one job is created for every $21,000 in loans.
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My take:
This is a fantastic way for the private sector to team up with a local development agency to put productive money back into the community. At the end of the day, if the plans work, the private business donating the funds stands to reap huge rewards while also helping to revitalize the country where they made their money in the first place.
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