CAMEO’s history, like that of many entrepreneurial endeavors, can be traced back to long planning sessions at the kitchen table. Its four founders usually met in Santa Rosa at the home of one of their parents, who put them up, fed them, and let them hold their day-long meetings in the kitchen. To capture the organization’s history, CAMEO spoke with one of the founders, Sheilah Rogers.

The Spark
In 1993, a grant from the James Irvine Foundation brought together four pioneering leaders focused on women’s economic rights: Mimi VanSickle of Women’s Economic Growth in Weed, Sheilah Rogers of West Company in Ukiah, Debi Clifford of Women’s Initiative for Self Employment in San Francisco, and Forescee Hogan-Rowles of the Coalition for Women’s Economic Development in Los Angeles. The grant’s purpose was to cultivate business development programs serving low-income women entrepreneurs.

Discovering a Need
The four women quickly realized that in order to serve this population, there was a pressing need for advocacy work. “Several regulations affected the ability of low-income women and particularly welfare clients to be able to even imagine starting their own business,” remarked Rogers, “and these needed to be addressed.” Welfare clients, for example, were not allowed to hold assets, presenting a major barrier to business ownership. “We realized that if we were to move forward on advocacy, we needed to start some kind of trade association that would let us do it.” The initial grant period was drawing to a close and “the band of four” decided to become aggressive in fundraising. They went back to the James Irvine Foundation and asked for its help in forming a California network whose primary purpose was advocacy and capacity-building for the state’s microenterprise field.

The Name
What to call this new organization? “California was important, the term ‘microenterprise’ was around by then, and the national microenterprise development entity, the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, gave rise to the ‘opportunity’ part,” Rogers says. They called their new endeavor the California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity, and soon hit upon the acronym CAMEO.

Incubation, Then Incorporation
The founders succeeded in their fundraising. Women’s Initiative for Self Employment provided fiscal sponsorship at the beginning. CAMEO received grants from the Irvine Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Foundation. “We were developing without a lot of other pioneers, so we were really learning from each other. The original vision for CAMEO was to be able to continue the advocacy and capacity-building work we started during this time.”

The next step was to create a stand-alone nonprofit with a board of directors—an arduous task. “Our board has always been one of our strengths; we’ve always managed to bring in professionals from all sectors of economic development, including government and private industry, and this has resulted in a strong board.”

Staff
CAMEO had been incubated all over the state and the founders had held it together for a period of time. It was time to spin it off and get an Executive Director: one employee who would be an advocacy person in Sacramento. “This was a time when we were introducing ourselves to the legislature and trying to get this concept out, and we always had a fairly decent reception. It seemed to be an idea people could understand: we’re talking small business development, we’re talking about opportunity for people who haven’t had access, and we’re figuring out ways to make it happen for them and to improve their families’ economic and social conditions. And that rang true. “

Laurie Pantell was CAMEO’s first CEO, from1994 to 1997. During her tenure, CAMEO was incorporated. It held two conferences in Sacramento, grew the membership from a handful to over 100, and introduced state-level microenterprise legislation. It also obtained a research grant and looked at the impact of microenterprise development programs statewide.

In August 1997, Catherine Marshall took the helm. Under her stewardship, CAMEO has enjoyed significant growth. In the late nineties, CAMEO began to hire support staff. Today the organization operates with a staff of five.

“Catherine’s ability to grow the organization proved to be pretty outrageous. Her leadership has been extraordinary.”

Evolution
“We felt the spirit of being pioneers, forming this association in such a large state, and we had actually pulled it off. Even though it wasn’t a rich organization, it benefited from our experience of working together—it had a solid base.”

The original concept held true; microenterprise development programs needed advocacy and capacity building. This field was different from other forms of business development, and there was a lot to learn. The programs were working with a target population that faced barriers that other people going in to business wouldn’t necessarily encounter. They didn’t have access to capital and training and often didn’t even know that self-employment might be an option. They also didn’t have much self-esteem or self-confidence, and might encounter personal, family, or social obstacles. These difficulties made the need for capacity building—supporting programs’ work and exchanging best practices—critical.

As funders were persuaded of the value of microenterprise development, their commitment to CAMEO grew and it grew nationally as well, extending to the Aspen Institute, AEO, and other microenterprise development organizations. “Having that sort of ongoing investment for the first decade was really critical for the survival of the industry. “

CAMEO Today
CAMEO has grown to become a leader in microenterprise development throughout the United States. “It’s probably the most highly regarded and influential organization of its kind, one that does the most to build capacity and that is called upon by others for its expertise.”

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