Coffee Company Launches Create Jobs for USA
During a recent interview Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said, “We as business leaders should not and we cannot wait for Washington to do something about the economy.”
With a cup of coffee and plan in hand he took to the media to launch Create Jobs for USA, whereby Starbucks locations across the country began encouraging customers to contribute toward small-business lending that Schultz believes will lead to job growth.
Starbucks has teamed with Opportunity Finance Network to launch Create Jobs for USA, which will “pool donations from Starbucks customers, partners (employees) and concerned citizens into a nationwide fund for community business lending.”
According to the website, www.CreateJobsforUSA.org, in donating to OFN, 100 percent of your donation will help create and sustain jobs in underserved communities. To launch this project, the Starbucks Foundation is donating the first $5 million.
Create Jobs for USA will accept donations online and at nearly 6,800 company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States. Donors who contribute $5 or more will receive a red, white and blue wristband with the message “Indivisible.”
According to the release, the wristband is designed to serve as a symbol of Americans uniting with other Americans to help create jobs.
One hundred percent of donations are supposed to go to the Opportunity Finance Network to help fund loans to community businesses—including small businesses, micro enterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing— all across the country committed to creating and sustaining jobs, as stated in the release.
“Small businesses are the backbone of America, employing more than half of all private sector workers, but this critical jobs engine has stalled. We’ve got to thaw the channels of credit so that community businesses can start hiring again. Create Jobs for USA empowers Americans to help other Americans create and sustain jobs, with Starbucks and OFN as a catalyst and the Indivisible wristband as a symbol of our country’s unity,” Schultz said.
Opportunity Finance Network is a national network of community lending institutions that invest in opportunities to benefit low-income, low-wealth and other disadvantaged communities in the U.S. OFN doesn’t actually make loans, it’s a network of some 180 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) which finance community businesses that often find it challenging to secure financing from conventional financing institutions.
The CDFI community lenders will issue $30 in financing, on average, for each $5 donation through their respective financing sources.
WOW, it really all sounds grand, and in today’s world any innovative and inspirational idea deserves attention. However, don’t expect to see any of that money coming to Central Oregon any time soon, if ever. If you go to the website (see below) looking for Oregon Community Development Financial Institutions, which would have to apply to the Opportunity Finance Network for funds, the only one you’ll find is CASA of Oregon based in Sherwood whose mission is to develop housing, programs and facilities that promote the quality of life and self-sufficiency of farmworkers and other low income populations.
An email response from the Opportunity Finance Network also directed us to the Small Business Administration, which is another bureaucratic organization that so far has been unable to provide small businesses in Central Oregon with very little assistance.
No doubt Starbucks CEO has the best of intentions, but it’s unlikely that the way the loan program is set up it will actually be able to assist any business in Central Oregon, so you may want to forgo your donation until there’s some clear indication as to where the money is going.
Meanwhile, Starbucks is doing well. After eliminating 39,000 jobs during a two-year period that ended last fall — about 22 percent of its autumn 2008 workforce — the company expects to add more than 3,500 jobs — mostly baristas — in the United States this year.
Job growth is expected to continue next year, as Starbucks ramps up store remodeling to 1,700 locations next year and adds at least 200 stores. The company also plans to expand roasting operations and add a fifth U.S. roasting facility in the next 18 months.
Given Starbuck growth potential and positive economic outlook, $5 million is just a small gesture for such a growing company. pha
