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Funding Source for Women Announces First Loans
They kicked off their national drive for $5 donations in late March 2000, and in early August 2000 the organizers of a fund for women-owned businesses announced its first recipients. Receiving the first small business loans were Kristy Eaton, 29, of Piedmont, S.C., who makes and sellscakes, and Geneva Francais, 64 or Atlanta, who markets meat marinade sauces and salad dressings from her home. Also receiving funds was Heather McCartney, 34, of New York City. Her cookies and cookie cutters represent traditional African symbols.
The founder of Count-me-in for Women’s Economic Independence is Nell Merlino, who started Take Our Daughters to Work Day with the MS Foundation, and Iris Burnett, a former executive with USA Networks. The group is an internet-based organization that raises money for women in $5 contributions. The funds are then redistributed to women in small business loans ranging from $500 to $10,000. Contributers can ante up at the www.count-me-in.org web site. Other information for small businesses is also on the site.
By early August 2000 the group said it had raised a little more than $1 million from contributions averaging about $15 each. The goal is $8 million, which would fund some 2000 small business loans.
What kind of women are the recipients and how did they launch their businesses? Eaton began her cake business when her mother’s car broke down at the mechanic wanted a cake as payment. The divorced mother of two will use her $3,500 to move her operations into a rental building and buy more equipment to boost production, according to Count-me-in.
A $1,500 loan to Francais, a widow, will help her build storage shelves in ther kitchen so she can sell her sauces and other products to gourmet shops. And McCartney will use a $5,000 loan to help expand her Ethnic Edibles packaging and marketing operations.
"Access to credit and capital remains the number one issue raised by self-employed and entrepreneurial women in every economic circumstance," says Merlin..