Recognized for "FinTech Innovation"

NEW YORK CITY (August 1, 2016) - SourceFunding.org was featured for socially responsible "FinTech Innovation" in the August 2016 Business & Management Review. The paper, titled "Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility with the Global Community," was presented at the International Conference on Business & Economic Development in Paris.

Excerpt from the Business & Management Review:

"W. Michael Short, founder of Short Enterprises and the Global Social Enterprise Institute, spoke on the importance of building dynamic and cross-sector public-private-nonprofit-foundation partnerships in advancing economic development, inclusive entrepreneurship, and innovation. In order to demonstrate this, Mr. Short highlighted the national financial technology (FinTech) initiative that he is spearheading in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation, Ashoka U Commons Accelerator, the White House, various universities, a national network of small business technical assistance providers and financial institutions, among others. The initiative, a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) sponsored “Commitment to Action” developed in the Ashoka U Commons, is focused on addressing a major barrier to growth cited by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs): access to low-cost financing. This will be accomplished with the launch of the nation's first FinTech platform focused on community businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs with a social-impact, mission-driven, or workforce development focus."

Our Commitment to Action: Financial Inclusion & Economic Empowerment

Photo: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed Speaking at Opening Plenary of Clinton Global Initiative.

Press Release via Global Social Enterprise Institute:

ATLANTA, GEORGIA (JUNE 2016) — Entrepreneur and economic development specialist W. Michael Short was invited to the Clinton Global Initiative Summit in Atlanta, GA, to announce the expansion of SourceFunding.org and the FundingNavigator℠ as a 2016 Clinton Foundation-sponsored "Commitment to Action."

Pictured: W. Michael Short, founder of SourceFunding.org , with President Clinton.

Recognized for socially responsible "FinTech Innovation" in the Business & Management Review and highlighted at the Obama White House, SourceFunding.org is a tech-enabled venture focused on bridging the opportunity divide for the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. so they can expand, create jobs, & transform communities.

SourceFunding.org is the nation's first low-cost matchmaking platform connecting small businesses with the 14,000+ responsible community banks, credit unions, CDFIs, & economic development financing opportunities in the U.S.

SourceFunding.org merges unparalleled access to the nation's financing opportunities with the nation's first universal e-application for small business funding. The proprietary system improves loan application outcomes, reduces friction for businesses seeking financing, protects the credit scores of small business applicants, and provides the nation's first viable alternative to the many predatory online lenders.

SourceFunding.org is scaling up the successful SourceFunding.org pilot by GSEI and award-winning Short Enterprises from 2011-2015, which facilitated access to $10 million in capital for high impact ventures and initiatives in a community with the nation’s highest levels of poverty concentration.

The platform's national expansion was planned in collaboration with university partners in the Ashoka U Accelerator and with the support of founding investor Janet Davas, mentor with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and founder of Hatch, LLC, & nationally recognized Liberty's Kitchen.

"We're especially thankful for the support of the brilliant team at the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation like David Wilkinson and fellow Syracuse University graduate Laura Tomasko," said W. Michael Short. "We're also very thankful for the incredibly inspiring team at Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation like Dan Goldberg, Stacey Pellegrino, Geoffrey Wnuk, Rose Tobiassen, Shital Patel, Ruchi Bhargava, Kimberly Lovett, and many others."

"The national expansion announcement was also made possible by our involvement in the Ashoka U Accelerator, which helped us refine our model and formulate our CGI Commitment to include a significant focus on empowering the next generation of high impact entrepreneurs that are unable to access the funding needed to launch and grow their ventures," said Short. "The Ashoka U Commons Accelerator is a world-class program."

Click here to read the original article from Global Social Enterprise Institute.

SourceFunding.org National Launch Planned in Ashoka U Commons Accelerator

Photo Credit: Ashoka U Commons

ARLINGTON, VA (March 1, 2016) - The SourceFunding.org national expansion and announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative was planned in collaboration with university and foundation partners in the Ashoka U Commons Accelerator.

SourceFunding.org Founder W. Michael Short, president of the Global Social Enterprise Institute (GSEI) who at the time was serving as Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Le Moyne College, was specifically focused during the Commons on student entrepreneurial pathways and inadequate access to small business funding throughout GSEI's global network of 250+ collaborating universities and institutions. 

The Ashoka U Commons, described as a "virtual accelerator for changemaking education," is an online professional development program for universities engaged in social innovation education initiatives. Over the course of a semester, accelerator participants are grouped into university cohorts as they work to advance a core component of social innovation education such as creating a new course, curriculum, or mapping student pathways at their institution.