Date: September 14, 21, 28, 2011

Friedman Associates and their partners are offering three free webinars in September to help plan for next year’s budget and new and improved ways to help clients build strong businesses and lead our communities into economic recovery. Despite continued economic challenges, microenterprise development organizations and CDFIs are finding new opportunities to demonstrate their relevance and impact.

Building a High Performance Volunteer Program

Wednesday September 14th at 2:00 pm EDT

Women’s Initiative has a demonstrated model for successfully utilizing volunteers at every level of the agency and has designed a program intended to transition interest into engagement. In this webinar, Katie will share best practices for the design, execution, and cultivation of volunteer programs to capture individual agency needs and maximize volunteer impact. One notable program is the Women’s Initiative Microenterprise Fellowship Program, designed to engage recent college graduates and seasoned professionals alike to contribute to the agency by maximizing each fellow’s interests and expertise, and by creating a professional development experience unmatched by traditional internships.

Led by Katie Taylor, Research Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator for Women’s Initiative for Self Employment.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/127139616

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Estimating Supply and Demand for Microcredit in Your Community 

Wednesday, September 21st at 2:00 pm EDT

It’s become conventional wisdom – tightened credit markets means more business for microfinance organizations and CDFIs. But how do you really know? How do you quantify the demand for microcredit in your community? In this webinar, we reveal our approach to helping microfinance organizations and CDFIs answer that key question. Through a process that combines number crunching and interviews with key stakeholders, you will be armed with the information you need to increase volume and impact. Also, we’ll give you some tips on how to “fine tune” your loan fund operations to achieve greater efficiency and performance.

Led by Amelia Lobo, Friedman Associates and Blaise Rastello, Urban Oasis

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/182146672

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Innovations in Green Microenterprise Development in Rural Communities

Wednesday, September 28th at 2:00 pm EDT

Established by The Conservation Fund with a lead grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, ShadeFund enables individuals, companies and foundations to help green entrepreneurs across America grow their businesses and create jobs. Tax deductible contributions to ShadeFund are pooled and lent to qualified small green businesses nationwide. As entrepreneurs repay their loans, those same dollars are recycled to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Adelante Empreas integrates elements of sustainability, using the triple bottom line framework, into each element of its business development program for Latinos. Learn how staff conducts an impact assessment with clients to identify sustainability goals and how they integrate these goals into their business development coaching.

Led by Rick Larson, Director, ShadeFund and Ali Brown, Coordinator, Adelante Empressas.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/682715393

These webinars are provided by Women’s Initiative, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs/Georgia Green Loans, Little Dixie Community Action Agency and Friedman Associates and funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration PRIME Program.

Date: September 13, 2011
Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm
Location: The Aspen Institute (One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036)

Hosted by FIELD at the Aspen Institute. A long-time challenge facing microenterprise programs is how to reach larger numbers of entrepreneurs efficiently despite the distance to a program office. In order to bridge the distance gap, more and more practitioners are providing distance based business development services. The greater availability of computers with high-speed Internet access, and the prevalence of hand-held devices, even among the disadvantaged have facilitated the quick ramping up of these services. And, practitioners are using a range of strategies-from phone and web-based webinar technology to podcasts and social networking.

Join as they share some of their findings and speak to a pioneer practitioner of these strategies-Marita Fairfield from Coastal Enterprises in Maine. They will walk you through lessons learned as you embark on, or seek to improve, your own organization’s efforts in this area.

Funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s PRIME Program, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Citi Foundation 

To register, please click here.

Free Webinar Provided by Friedman Associates

Date: March 17, 2011
Time: 1:00pm

Space is limited.  Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/476944913

The pressure is on to ‘make the case’ for programs that support micro- and small businesses in competitive funding and policy environments.  Mission-driven success for MDO and MFIs is increasingly defined as longer term outcomes for clients and their communities; jobs created and retained; businesses started, expanded, and sustained; and increased household income due to business ownership and revenue.

This webinar will introduce you to MicroTest, a set of proprietary management tools for microenterprise programs to help assess and improve their performance and outcomes. Since 1998 MicroTest (www.microtest.org) has provided over 150 practitioners and/or networks of practitioners with proven and standardized data collection and reporting tools, expert data review, analysis and custom reports, and technical assistance.

Join to learn:

• What MicroTest is, what it takes to join, and the tools, training and services members receive.
• What practitioner members are saying about MicroTest-three practitioners will describe and show how they use the Aspen Institute’s MicroTest tools and reports for monitoring their program performance and outcomes.
• How MicroTest contributes to FIELD’s strategic and essential industry-wide research and ability to make the case for microenterprise development in the U.S.

The webinar will be led by Marian Doub and Jason Friedman of Friedman Associates and Tamra Thetford, MicroTest Program Manager.  In partnership with MicroTest, Marian provides capacity building training and technical assistance to new and renewing MicroTest members.  Marian is nationally respected for her expertise in building high-integrity integrated systems for measuring success and promoting best practices. She will be joined by MicroTest members:

• Jenna Boyer, Development and Evaluation Manager, Opportunity Fund, San Jose, CA
• Erika Eurkus, Senior Director, ACCION USA
• Alex Forrester, COO, Rising Tide Capital, Jersey City, NJ

Date:  November 17, 2010
Time:  9:00am – 5:00pm
Location:  Babson College, Wellesley, MA

Free Webinar presented by Friedman Associates

Date:  Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time:  2:00pm – 3:30pm EDT

How do you create a green brand and message for your new or existing green microenterprise program? Green messaging can be a powerful way to differentiate your nonprofit and products and services in the market and inspire employees, clients and stakeholders.

In this free webinar we will discuss the benefits of creating a strong and separate identity for your green microenterprise program. Specifically, we will

- define sustainability as an outcome for your work;
- build client awareness of green as viable strategy;
- attract new funding;
- engage new partners;
- and more!

Webinar reservation here

FIELD is a project of the Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), which is a policy program housed at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. EOP focuses on advancing strategies that connect the poor and underemployed to the mainstream economy.

Upcoming FIELD Webinars Include:

Trends in Demand, Risk, and Funding
Sponsored by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Thursday, March 4, 2010
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST
Register Here

Managing Your Microlending in a Challenging Environment
Sponsored by the Bank of America Foundation
Friday, March 26, 2010
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST
Register Here

Additional FIELD information and past webinar resources are available at: http://fieldus.org/index.html

An Advanced Training Program for Technical Assistance

Date:  March 1-2, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Time:  10:00am – 4:00pm
Location:  Babson College (231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA 02482)

The Mel King Institute for Community Building will offer an advanced training program for Business Technical Assistance providers in Massachusetts beginning in late March 2010.  The program is targeted toward seasoned practitioners along with executive directors.  The primary objective of this program is to raise the standard of business assistance by providing knowledge, tools and resources that will translate into measurable skills improvements.  The program is particularly designed for community based nonprofit organizations that focus on supporting businesses with less than 20 employees, self employed persons, underserved communities (including rural and urban), and/or entrepreneurs who are immigrants, people of color, lower income, linguistic minorities or otherwise not well served by traditional providers. The 9 month program will consist of 6 full day training models including:

• Success Measures for TA Providers
• Consulting/Client Relationship Management
• Business Plan Fundamentals for Start-ups
• Existing Business Strategic Planning and Diagnostic Tools
• Financial Sustainability/Asset Management
• Strategic Management of small business programs

The TA Training Program will be consist of intensive, hands-on sessions, that incorporate a mix of one-on-one consulting sessions, online TA provider and instructor collaboration, and the development of Program Delivery Guides.

Raising the Standard for Small Business Technical Assistance sessions will be led by Jason Friedman and Marian Doub of Friedman Associates as well as Elizabeth Thornton and Donna Stoddard of Entrepreneurship Advantage, Inc.

Advanced TA Training Program Description

Presentation Documents for Modules 1 & 2

For more information, please e-mail MelKingInstitute@macdc.org
or contact Jay Rosa:
jayr@macdc.org
617-426-0303