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CAMEO Is Working for You!

In this week’s Must Know

  • CAMEO Works For You
  • CAMEO Webinar on Grant Opportunity
  • The Goodies: This week’s highlight includes a possible refund for you and your clients, whomever collects money via credit cards. Learn more about the credit card settlement.
  • Watch our video CAMEO Connects to illustrate the power of locally-grown small-businesses.

CAMEO Works for You

CAMEO loves its members. We love to have you all in the same room, so we can generate new ideas and energy to move our sector forward. We advocate on your behalf. We’re always on the look out for opportunities and information that will benefit your organization. And that’s what this issue of the Must Know is all about, as the next few months hold many opportunities for you and your organizations.

Nominate your client for CAMEO’s 3rd annual Faces of Entrepreneurship Awards by April 30, 2013. Awards will be presented at the Annual CAMEO Member Meeting in Sacramento on June 5-6, 2013.

FIELD at the Aspen Institute has launched the 2013 U.S. Microenterprise Census! And CAMEO is partnering once again with FIELD for our annual survey. So it’s time to gather your data and fill out the census. If you complete the survey by May 10, 2013, CAMEO will treat you and your staff to lunch up to $100!! Last year, CVBI (pictured) took advantage of the opportunity for some staff bonding time on CAMEO. If you’re not the person who fills out the census, then mention the free staff lunch to them.

CAMEO Webinar on Grant Opportunity

Need help applying for a national CCHD grant? Beth Hyser and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference are here to help!

On May 15, 2013 at 11:00am, CAMEO will host a webinar about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), a funding source for micro-business development. Presented by Beth Hyser, the session is aimed at 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations that serve low income people in rural or urban areas. Pre-applications for the next cycle of the CCHD grant program will be available from Sept. – Nov. 1, 2013.

Register for this webinar to learn how to apply for a CCHD grant. Login and dial-in information will be furnished upon registration.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops created the CCHD grant program 40 years ago to provide funding to groups of low income people who are empowered to address the causes of poverty in their communities. CCHD has provided nearly 8,000 grants to community groups address a range of issues such as micro-enterprise development, community marketplaces or co-operatives for small artisans and growers, legal advocacy to enforce fair wages, environmental justice, affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods, and church/parish based social action organizing. The National Catholic Rural Life Conference works with CCHD to offer free outreach and consulting to rural community groups that address poverty.

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know: I have posted a running tab of current Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!

Possible Refund for You and Your Clients: In the last few months, many businesses should have received letters regarding the large settlement reached in the long-running lawsuit over the interchange rates that Visa and Mastercard have charged businesses and non-profits in the past. Any person, business or other entity that accepted Visa or MasterCard credit or debit cards in the U.S. at any time between January 1, 2004 and November 28, 2012 may be eligible to receive a payment from the $6.05 billion settlement fund. You can learn more about the settlement and preregister for reimbursement at the court authorized website. This is the only website with court authorized information about the settlement.

California Economic Forums: They began this week and are taking place all over the state. The ones in April are in SLO, Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley. The goal is to identify local priorities for investing in people, infrastructure and innovation to prepare our state to compete in the 21st century global economy. Please participate if you can and represent our sector. Make sure you identify as a member of CAMEO.

Grant Opportunity: The Huffington Post, Skoll Foundation and Half the Sky Movement are teaming up to Invest in Women who Change the World. On April 24, they’re launching the RaiseForWomen Challenge, a fundraising Challenge to help female-focused charities gain recognition and resources. And, they’re giving away $75,000. Deadline is April 24, 2013 to sign up.

Small Business Event: Intuit hosts Hire Smart on April 27, 2013 at Intuit’s offices in Mountain View. It’s a free event to help small businesses hire their first employee. Learn more and register.

Free Webinars: Opportunity Finance Network hosts Scaling Up Microfinance, a series of ten, free technical assistance webinars from April to October 2013. The goal of the CDFI Fund’s Scaling Up Microfinance Capacity Building Initiative is to create jobs, build assets, and reduce poverty by scaling microfinance operations. The next topic is Encouraging Innovation and Developing Talent on April 30, 2013 at 11:00am PT. Find a full list of topics and webinars as well as registration information.

CAMEO Event: CAMEO co-sponsors a networking reception hosted by New Resource Bank and ASBC on May 1, 2013 5:30-7:30pm at the New Resource Bank Office in downtown San Francisco. Join with fellow business leaders to share ideas about the important role that business can play in supporting public policies that build a more just and sustainable economy. RSVP required.

Free Webinar: Friedman Associates host: Prep My CDFI! and Get the CARS(TM) Rating You Deserve! on May 1, 2013 at 11:00am PT // 2:00pm ET. More investors require CDFIs to produce positive financial returns and data that demonstrate long-term impacts. Register to learn more about CARS(TM) and how Friedman Associates will help you get the CARS(TM) rating you want!

RFP Opportunity: The City of Ukiah invites proposals for Underwriting Services for Community Development Block Grant Economic Development Allocation Program. Proposals are due no later than 12:00 pm, May 8, 2013. Download Ukiah’s RFP (it includes contact information.)

Economic Development Conference: California Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA)’s annual teaching and learning conference is in San Francisco on May 9 at the Hilton. Registration fees are $75 for members and $90 for non-members Scholarships are available, contact CAMEO for information.

Free Webinar: CAMEO is co-sponsoring a webinar hosted by Small Business Majority – What Immigration Reform Means for your California Small Business – on May 10, 2013 at 10:00am PT. Register to learn about the latest of immigration reform and what it means for small business.

Conference: The Social Enterprise Alliance hosts Building an Economy on Purpose, May 19-22, 2013 in Minneapolis, MN. Summit ’13 is designed around the goal of building our economy on a purpose greater than profit. They’ve identified seven building blocks of a for-purpose economy and structured conference programming around them: policy, capital, markets, knowledge, spirit, talent, and community. CAMEO’s Individual Training program that can offset some of the costs for the conferences listed here. Contact Shufina English for more information.

Public Banking Conference 2013: Funding the New Economy will take place in San Rafael, California on June 2-4. They will explore one of the core foundations of successful economies around the world: a distributed network of public banks that operate in the public interest of each respective community. It starts off with a Conversation among Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone magazine), Birgitta Jonsdottir (Member of Icelandic Parliament), Ellen Brown (author of Web of Debt), and Gar Alperovitz.

Refugee Microenterprise Development Grant: The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has announced the availability of funds for the Refugee Microenterprise Development Project. ORR has supported microenterprise development projects since 1991 through the award of discretionary grants to a variety of public agencies, community economic development agencies, local mutual assistance associations, and voluntary agencies. Non-profits qualify. Applications are due June 10, 2013.

2013 Small Business Finance Forum: OFN hosts a CDFI conference focused on the small business sector on June 11-12, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. Remember CAMEO can offset some of the costs for this and other conferences. Contact Shufina English for more information.