- Accion USA
infobox company
company_name = ACCION USA (AUSA)
company_
company_type = Body Corporate
foundation = 1991
location =Boston ,Atlanta ,Miami
origins =New York
key_people =Joseph Blatchford , founder
area_served =United States
industry =Microfinance
products =Financial Services Microfinance
homepage = http://www.accionusa.org/Accion USA is a
microfinance organization that offers microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-incomeentrepreneurs in the United States who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses . Accion USA is part ofAccion International , a U.S.-based nonprofit organization operating globally, with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out ofpoverty .Accion USA's parent organization, ACCION International, began its work in
economic development in 1961. In 1973, ACCION International made its first microloans in Recife, Brazil to men and women—street vendors, carpenters, seamstresses—who started their own very small businesses in order to survive. In 1991, due to ACCION International’s success and the clear need formicrofinance in the U.S., ACCION started a U.S. pilot program in Brooklyn, NY to serve small businesses that lacked access to traditional sources of financing. Based on the success of this program, ACCION’s microfinancing network grew to include low-income communities in Chicago, New Mexico, San Diego, and Texas. Including Accion USA’s offices in Atlanta, Boston, and Miami, the U.S. ACCION Network is the largest of its kind in the United States, having disbursed over $210 million in small business loans to more than 20,000 entrepreneurs.Programs & Loans
"Small Business Loan Program"
Accion USA provides microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-income
entrepreneurs who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses."Credit Builder Loan Program"
In 2008 Accion USA launched "Build Your Credit", a multilingual grassroots outreach campaign designed to help immigrants improve their financial capacity. Seminars on the importance of credit in the United States were held in Boston, Miami, and Atlanta.
"Financial Literacy Program"
In 2006 Accion USA launched [http://yourmoney.accion.org/ "Your Money and You"] , a multi-lingual financial literacy program geared towards low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs that provides tools help improve
financial literacy in four key areas: money management,credit , the fundamentals of running a successful small business, and business taxes and insurance. [ cite web|url=http://yourmoney.accion.org|title=Welcome To Your Money & You|author=ACCION USA|date=2008-08-29|accessdate=2008-08-29]Operational Statistics
During the sixteen years of its work in the U.S. ACCION has loaned out approximately $210 million to over 20,000 micro-entrepreneurs. The historical average loan size claimed by Accion USA is $5,300. Cumulative loss rates are claimed to have been 7%. [ cite web|url= http://www.accionusa.org/site/c.lvKVL9MUIsG/b.4432803/k.7EA0/Publications__ACCION_USA.htm|title=Innovations in Microenterprise Development in the United States|author=William Burrus|date=2006|accessdate=2008-08-29]
A three-year study of 849 borrowers reveals that after just two small business loans over 17 months, U.S. ACCION Network clients increased their:
• take-home income by 38 percent, or an average of $455 per month
• average monthly profits by 47 percent
• business
equity by 42 percentAwards and Acknowledgements
• In 1998, the U.S. ACCION Network received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development for Program Innovation. [ cite web|url= http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/rr2979.htm |title=Presidential Awards for Excellence|author=US Department of Treasury|date=1999-02-29|accessdate=2008-09-10]
• In 2001, ACCION was chosen as one of America’s 100 best charities by Worth magazine. [ cite web|url= http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures/6152851-1.html|title=Boston-Based ACCION is One of 100 Best Charities in U.S.; Five Greater Boston Nonprofits...|author=Business Wire|date=2001-12-04|accessdate=2008-09-29]
• In 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 ACCION received Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award for “changing the world by using entrepreneurial genius to solve some of the most daunting social problems.”
• In 2005, Accion USA expanded its reach nationwide when it launched its Online Small Business Loan Application, enabling Accion USA to offer its small business loans to entrepreneurs throughout the United States.
Related Ventures
ACCION International created Accion USA as a not-for-profit
subsidiary to oversee and implement all its lending activities in the United States. Accion USA has three forms of operating:• As a “franchiser” in which it licenses the name and trademarks to independent, non-profit organizations that have their own legal status, board of directors, and staff. These include the ACCION programs in New York, Chicago, Texas, New Mexico and San Diego.
• Accion USA also has “company-owned” offices that are run directly. These include Boston, Miami and Atlanta. Each has a local Advisory Board and a staff whose members are employees of ACCION USA.
• Accion USA, in 2005, launched its Internet lending program whereby microentrepreneurs can apply for loans regardless of their physical location in the United States. Collectively these entities form the U.S.ACCION Network.
Microenterprises in the U.S.
In the United States, the microenterprise development field and its
trade association , The Association of Enterprise Opportunity [http://www.microenterpriseworks.org/ AEO] , have defined a microenterprise as a business with five or fewer employees. Many of these businesses have no employees other than the self-employed owners. Additionally, such microenterprises generally need less than $35,000 in loan capital and do not have access to the conventional commercial banking sector. Most organizations in the field also focus their services on those microentrepreneurs who, as defined by federal government standards, are low-to-moderate income. By definition, most of these entrepreneurs are minorities, recent immigrants, women, disabled or for other reasons have special challenges that reduce their ability to access traditionalcredit and other services.The microenterprise field has a twenty-year history in the United States. While the term “microenterprise” was in common use internationally by the late 1970s, it came into domestic use about a decade later. Traditionally, the business sector had been categorized into three groups: large, medium, and small. The U.S. Small Business Administration [http://www.sba.gov/ (SBA)] defines a small business as having up to 500 employees. In 1991, the SBA recognized microenterprise as a separate or distinct category of business.
During the 1990s the microenterprise field grew rapidly in the United States. Starting with a small number of non-profit organizations testing developing country models, the field now has service providers in every state, a national trade association (AEO), a growing number of state-level associations and financing intermediaries, and several research and policy organizations. [http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ The Aspen Institute] and [http://www.fieldus.org/ FIELD] (Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination) has collected data on the organizations in the field since 1992. The first directory, in 1992, listed 108 organizations that identified themselves as working in the field. By 2002 this number had grown to 650 organizations. Of these, 554 are organizations that provide direct services and 96 are support organizations that offer funding, training and technical assistance to these practitioner organizations. [ cite web|url=http://fieldus.org/Publications/index.html#2002Dir|title=Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the United States|author=Elaine Edgcomb and Joyce Klein|date=2005|accessdate=2008-09-29]
External Links
[http://www.score.org/ SCORE]
[http://www.grameen-info.org/ Grameen Bank]
[http://www.microenterpriseworks.org/ AEO]
[http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ Aspen Institute]
[http://www.sba.gov/ SBA]
[http://www.fieldus.org/ FIELD]
References
ACCION USA Website, n.d. Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://www.accionusa.org
ACCION, n.d., “ACCION’s History,” Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://www.Accion.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=506&srcid=253
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