NRDP-SBA Partnerships
Here are some of the successful partnerships that State Councils have had
with the U.S. Small Business Administration. For more information, please
contact Rick Wetherill in the
Office of Community Development.
The Alaska Rural Development Council has been working to safeguard access to small business development services in rural areas. The ARDC collaborated with the First National Bank of Anchorage to ensure the survival of the Small Business Development Center's rural outreach effort. As a result of the partnership, the First National Bank of Anchorage and other government and private-sector partners raised more than $125,000 in 1998-99 to sustain the rural outreach program.
The fourth edition of Idaho Rural Partnership's Idaho Small Business and Community Development Resource Directory was released in summer 2001. Originally created in 1995, this IRP product became so popular that it was updated in 1997, 1999, and again in 2001. The directory, a widely used reference document that provides rural citizens with information on all funding and non-funding resources, is used during the Community Review Project as a reference for additional funding assistance. To date, 14,000 copies of the first through fourth editions have been printed and distributed at no charge to Idaho's community leaders, elected officials, business owners, and rural development practitioners. Electronic copies in text and database format are available on diskette or may be downloaded from the IRP web site. Partnering with IRP on this effort were Idaho Department of Commerce (assisted with funding), Idaho Department of Labor (printed 4,000 copies of the fourth edition), US Small Business Administration (mailed the directory to the IRP mailing list), Idaho Small Business Development Centers (facilitated distribution to all small businesses in Idaho), USDA Farm Service Agency (assisted with distribution), and US West (assisted with funding).
Idaho Rural Partnership was successful in advocating use of the One Plan model to create a web site to assist prospective and existing business owners who face a daunting array of government regulations and business assistance sources. The Internet makes a virtual one-stop customer-oriented center possible, eliminating the need for current or potential business owners to physically visit an office to fill out forms. This enhances owners' understanding of government regulations that will impact their businesses and guides them to resources that can help them overcome barriers to business growth. On December 15, 2000, Governor Dirk Kempthorne publicly launched the Idaho Small Business Solutions web site. Development of the site required the collaborative, hands-on effort of over 20 organizations. IRP, in addition to catalyzing this effort, identified and secured partners and funding, facilitated the project, and contributed to model design. USDA-Rural Development funded this project with a Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) grant.
Rural Partners (the SRDC for Illinois) was the catalyst for creating a statewide strategic plan for rural Illinois. Titled "Building a Brighter Future for Rural Illinois," this plan represented the culmination of two years of work by public and private agency representatives. The plan includes several notable "Economic Vitality" goals that will be central to the future of rural Illinois. Specifically, the plan strives to ensure that rural entrepreneurs will have access to and knowledge of creative and innovating funding strategies, including adequate access to capital for business start-ups, expansions, and export opportunities. Additionally, the plan also suggests that a pro-competitive business climate will encourage the prudent use of tax dollars for education, transportation, and research to promote stable tax rates and competitive tax burdens among jurisdictions. The implementation of these goals and the accompanying objectives and benchmarks will create a climate for the Small Business Administration and other business-funding agencies to make more effective and successful business development loans. The Rural Partners network also helps link initiatives with the resources they need.
On August 2-3, 2000, Illinois Rural Partners and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs held two Financial Resources Workshops for rural communities. The workshops were held in Springfield and at Rend Lake and served almost one hundred attendees. Each workshop hosted six communities with ready-for-funding projects, allowing community representatives to meet with representatives from nine funding agencies. When not meeting with funding representatives, participants enjoyed presentations from seven grant-making organizations, including the Small Business Administration. The purpose of the workshops was twofold: (1) to build capacity among community leaders by having funding agency representatives educate attendees about the projects they fund, funds that are available, the application and eligibility process, and points of contact; and (2) to provide a forum for community representatives with ready-to-fund projects to meet with the appropriate funding representatives.
To meet its goal of increasing and assisting entrepreneurial efforts in the state, the Iowa Rural Development Council sponsored a workshop series for existing and potential home-based businesses from January to March 2001. The eight-site series provided content designed to educate potential entrepreneurs on the importance of home-based, technology-driven businesses and help those already operating home-based businesses become more profitable. The series allowed 121 home-based business owners to learn about the Iowa Enterprise Network (IEN), the state's home-based business association, and its resources and benefits. In addition to developing promotional materials, IRDC organized the meetings, provided administrative assistance, and helped secure sponsorship for the series. SBA provided extensive technical assistance to the Council and IEN and helped identify sites and individuals at each location who would organize the sessions. The Small Business Development Centers in each community hosted the events, recruited panels of area home-based businesses, and provided promotional assistance.
The Kansas Rural Development Council has received the Hammer Award from Vice President Gore's National Performance Review Committee for the Reinvention of Government. KRDC earned this honor by joining forces with USDA-Rural Development, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the South Central Kansas Economic Development District to create a single loan application form. This form reduces the amount of paperwork for small business owners who simultaneously request financial assistance from state and federal agencies.
Convened and supported by the Maine Rural Development Council, the Piscataquis' Rural Workforce and Entrepreneurial Development (RWED) network was formed in response to the imminent shut-down of Dexter Shoes at the end of 1999. The primary focus of this effort was to foster community capacity on a regional basis by collaborating with and connecting the many disparate efforts in communities across the region. Cultural heritage tourism, micro-business development and support, and small business expansion and retention are integral aspects of community development. The network consists of federal, regional, state, and local service and resource providers, including Maine's Departments of Economic and Community Development, Education, Human Services, and Labor; Maine Center for Women, Work, and Community; the County Extension and the region's adult education programs; as well as Housing and Urban Development and the Small Business Administration. Meeting monthly, the network is helping communities build capacity through locally designed and delivered workforce and entrepreneurial development programs. Bringing together such a wide range of agencies and program perspectives is a testament to MRDC's collaborative and consensus building skills.
The Montana Rural Development Partnership has worked closely with the local Small Business Development Centers to orchestrate hands-on Internet training sessions for small businesses over the last three years. In 1999 the Montana Small Business Administration (SBA) office and the MT RDP have joined together to provide joint Y2K training for SBA clients. A further collaboration that reaches out to SBA clients and other citizens is the WOW (Widening Our World) Van that provides free hands-on Internet training around the state. The Montana District Office of the SBA provides three training rooms, the US WEST WOW Program contributes a twelve laptop computer network and two WOW trainers, while the MT RDP offers a ten laptop computer network and one trainer and schedules the Van's visits.
In the fall of 2000, the New Hampshire Rural Development Council assembled public and private organizations to form four task forces on Technical Assistance, Health, the Northern Forest, and Community Development. This effort is part of the Council's three-year plan to publish "The State of Rural New Hampshire" and "A Rural Agenda for New Hampshire." The goal of this broader objective is to bring together fragmented data and groups to amplify a "rural voice" that will impact policy, legislation, and the allocation of resources affecting rural communities. The Small Business Administration is one of three federal agencies represented on these teams. The Council convened and facilitated meetings for three of the Technical Assistance task forces and created an electronic network, the Community Development Forum, which has been on the web since 2001, for the fourth.
The first North Dakota workshop dedicated to a review of Indian Reservation lending from the standpoint of tribal sovereignty was held in Bismarck in October 2000. The Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank contacted the North Dakota Rural Development Council requesting assistance in scheduling the special-emphasis forum. The event was held to address a number of shared misconceptions about lending on American Indian Reservations. There is a strong perception among lending organizations that tribal sovereignty is an inhibiting factor in the security of loans and the recuperation of debt. The goals of the workshop were to improve understanding of regulations governing tribal lending, open the doors of communication between the tribes and lending institutions, and ultimately improve mutual borrowing and lending access for tribal members and the financial community. As a result of the workshop, an Interagency Working Group on Reservation Lending, including the NDRDC, has been established. SBA, FDIC, CDFI, and the IRS all participated in the forum and now are represented on the Interagency Working Group. The Spirit Lake Sioux Nation of North Dakota agreed to pilot a focus project on their reservation, with emphasis on developing a uniform commercial code for the tribe. A mutually acceptable plan of action has been drafted, and regular progress reporting will occur throughout the pilot project. The goal of the pilot project is to develop best practices that will apply to other states, tribal governments, and lending institutions.
From its efforts to solicit feedback from rural advocates around the country, SBA found that there was a good deal of concern about the decline in SBA-guaranteed rural lending, caused by the high cost of fees, lower guaranty levels, centralization of servicing and the loss of decision-making at the local level, the high level of paperwork involved in SBA loans, and the difficulty in obtaining technical assistance. In response, SBA solicited the North Dakota Rural Development Council's input and feedback to help design new products and services, most notably the "Rural Express" program, a lending program designed to provide financing to small businesses in rural communities. NDRDC co-sponored a productive Rural Roundtable to help SBA improve its services. Forty key attendees from the North and South Dakota financial and small business communities, including local and regionally based Native American entrepreneurs, actively participated in the Roundtable. As a primary co-sponsor, the NDRDC worked closely with SBA to plan and implement a successful event. The NDRDC's active participation in the workshop included assistance with content planning, attendee recommendations, and coordination of the logistics for this important gathering of concerned participants. The information and input garnered through the Rural Roundtables enabled the SBA to craft legislative, regulatory, and policy changes within the context of an overall "Rural Initiative" to resuscitate small business lending in rural areas.
The North Dakota Rural Development Council serves as a full team member on all North Dakota emergency preparedness and recovery efforts, which have included both the immediate response to the floods and severe blizzards of 1997-98 and longer-term rebuilding efforts. In 1997, the Council provided on-site orientation to available disaster assistance and also coordinated an interactive television broadcast, featuring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Small Business Administration, and their recovery programs. Because of the work of the NDRDC, 650 applications for assistance were submitted. Many grants were awarded, including $632,000 for FEMA housing and $1,568,000 in public assistance. The NDRDC further acted as the catalyst for bringing together tribal governments, FEMA, the North Dakota Division of Emergency Management, and community colleges to train tribal government representatives in emergency management planning and practices. This training resulted in the reservations being better prepared to respond to both natural disasters and the more common emergencies of fires and accidents.
In June 2001, the Ohio Rural Development Partnership, in partnership with the Ohio Departments of Agriculture and Development, hosted the Successful Business Financing Conference. The conference provided small business assistance professionals with the latest information on public financing programs. The conference also successfully brought bankers, accountants, finance professionals, agriculture specialists, and small business people together to share ideas and discuss issues facing rural economic development. The Ohio Departments of Agriculture and Development sponsored the program, which was supported by a number of associations that drew attendees from their memberships. Representatives from HUD, SBA, and USDA-RD participated in the planning of this conference and a roundtable, where they described the resources that are available from their respective agencies.
The South Dakota Rural Development Council identified ways to implement the Technical Assistance for Manufacturers (TeAM) Program, a Manufacturing Extension Program for South Dakota's small manufacturers. Twice since 1995 and again in 2000, the Council has been the "glue" that helped hold together this invaluable federal-state partnership. SDRDC is ideally poised to ensure that the limited federal resources available through this program are used wisely and in conjunction with other available resources. The Council is experienced in this role, having leveraged other federally funded, state-matched resources, such as those available through Small Business Innovation Research Resource Centers, Small Business Development Centers, and the Governor's Office of Economic Development. In supporting the TeAM program, SDRDC has developed and nurtured solid linkages among these services, making match issues less difficult.
To help agricultural producers find the resources they need to effectively execute value-added agriculture projects, the South Dakota Rural Development Council facilitated the organization of a group of service providers that support such projects, including USDA-Rural Development. The group created a listserv, which allows members to be aware of project developments and to become involved in projects at a time when their services will be most valuable. Realizing that conflicting business plan/feasibility plan formats were in circulation, the group also produced a uniform format to guide all value-added agricultural projects. Lenders who finance such projects have approved this format, which bears the logos of all group members and is available in hard copy and on the Internet. The group is now documenting and sharing South Dakota's success stories of value-added agriculture projects. Another group initiative is to ensure the compatibility of federal and state definitions for financing programs. Initial efforts have involved a congressional delegation, USDA, and SBA.
Through a grant provided by the Four Corners Sustainable Forests Partnership, the Utah Rural Development Council joined with the Southern Utah Forest Products Alliance (SUFPA) to sponsor and conduct networking workshops in a six-county area of the southern Utah's Four Corners region. Workshops were held in the fall of 2000 in Castle Dale, Price, Richfield, Torrey, Monticello, and Bluff. Designed to promote the value of community forestry and cooperative marketing to the region's forestry employees and woodworkers, the open-house workshops are helping to build cross-regional networks among wood businesses and link these enterprises to local business resources. Such resources include county economic development directors, RC&D representatives, Workforce Services specialists, USU Extension Agents, and SBDC offices.
The West Virginia Rural Development Council provides staff support to the West Virginia Welfare Reform Coalition, which was created to ensure the successful implementation of welfare reform. WVRDC Executive Director Joe Barker was honored recently by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as the 1998 Welfare-to-Work Associate of the Year in West Virginia for his chairmanship of the coalition. Of further note, the coalition completed a study in February 1999 of the effects of West Virginia's welfare policies on families in the state.
After a 3-year effort, which began with a Rural Capital Study Group convened by Wisconsin Rural Partners, Inc., the state of Wisconsin is about to see its first venture capital fund geared toward small businesses. SBA was one of WRP's partners from the start. The fund, CapVest, is being created by Wilshire Investors, LLC and Community Bankers of Wisconsin, a statewide association of community banks whose membership is more than 70 percent in communities with a population of less than 10,000. CapVest is a venture capital fund of up to $30 million which will be geared toward high-growth rural firms in Wisconsin whose capitalization needs are smaller than a typical venture capital-seeking business. The fund will help meet the needs of rural businesses identified in a study conducted by Wisconsin Rural Partners Rural Capital Study Group in 1999. Partners involved in the study worked together through 2000 to develop a model program that provides more opportunities for rural businesses, utilizing the extensive network of community banks throughout the state. The fund was announced by Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum in February 2001 and is targeted to launch by June 2001. The fund's initial capitalization target of $10 million is already 70% realized through private funds. When 100% is achieved, the fund will seek licensing from the U.S. Small Business Administration as a Small Business Initiative Corporation, potentially leveraging its funds up to $30 million. Investments by community banks are eligible for credit under the Community Reinvestment Act. State and federal agencies, as well as small business, cooperative, business development, and farmers' organizations participated in the study. Small businesses looking for venture capital investment will now have a stable resource for funding, accessible through their local community banks.
Wisconsin Rural Partners and its partners have compiled Profiles in Rural Community Life, Volume 1, a catalog of best practice models to help public and private-sector agencies and organizations increase their access to valuable rural community development information. In March 1999, WRP convened its community models task group, made up of several public and private partners. The task group was charged with cataloging and disseminating best practice models for agriculture, economic development, health, and other areas. WRP coordinated the flow of information between group members, sponsored teleconferences and other meetings, contacted potential funders, wrote grant proposals, designed and coordinated the publication of the journal, and helped advertise and distribute the publication. WRP's partners included local and economic development organizations and governments, University of Wisconsin Extension agents from several counties, the Wisconsin Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Trade and Consumer Protection, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
