Tuesday, September 13, 2011

ShadeFund Offers Options for Small Business

ShadeFund is an Internet-based program designed to connect green entrepreneurs with capital from individual and corporate donors.  The start-up investment came from the Endowment and the initiative is managed by The Conservation Fund.

Small Business is the Focus
ShadeFund was recently recognized in the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce (USGC)'s August 31st e-newsletter as well as in a longer story on the USGC website.  The article, "Searching for Green Capital?,” focused on the importance of financial contributions from governmental and private sectors for small start-up and entrepreneurial companies, particularly green businesses.  Between 1993 and 2009, small businesses created 65 percent (or 9.8 million) of the 15 million net new jobs.  A recent report from The Brookings Institute recognized that “currently the U.S. green economy employs 2.7 million workers across a multitude of industries.”

USGC Puts Spotlight on ShadeFund
With the current state of the economy, grants created through the stimulus package have disappeared.  As a result, many businesses have approached the USGC for help in finding funding sources.  ShadeFund is seen as a beacon of light and hope that there is still money accessible to green entrepreneurs (foresters, farmers, eco-tourist businesses, food and medicine naturalists, and small-scale renewable energy producers).

 “The ShadeFund was designed to help green innovators get the funding they need to move their business forward when their personal resources run out, or when banks fail to support their small business ideas,”  -- Rick Larson, The Conservation Fund.

Loans of $5,000-$50,000
The ShadeFund lends $5,000 - $50,000 to green entrepreneurs across America so they can expand their business and create jobs.  “ShadeFund grew out of the need to invigorate the growing U.S. green economy,” said Larson.  “The future of American business will be green, but only if our entrepreneurs can get the “green” (capital) they need to grow.”

Be a ShadeFund Supporter!
If you’d like to be a ShadeFund supporter and help a green entrepreneur build the economy of the future, visit
http://www.shadefund.org/ and make a donation.

Michelle McGee

Endowment 2011 Intern

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Two Great Gifts: Wood and Woodworkers

A group of America's hardwood producers have voluntarily come together to develop a tagline designed to promote the tradition, warmth, and value of their products -- "American Hardwoods:  Treasured for Generations."  

America is truly a country built on wood.  The first European-Americans landed to find towering forests comprised on not just mighty oaks but tall pines as well.  What appeared to be an endless store of wood provided shelter, furnishings, heat, food, and more.

Hand-me-downs Everyone Wants
Like most Americans some of my family's most prized possessions are wooden boxes, trunks, and well-worn furniture handed down from generation-to-generation.  Wood and wood products are without peer as inanimate objects that provide fodder for the stories of life.

We at the Endowment were recently granted two new "gifts" of the forest.  We asked the Greenville Woodworkers Guild (www.greenvillewoodworkers.com) to come to our aid so that we could re-purpose some salvage items from our recently remodeled office and to make useful objects from surplus hardwood plywood panels left after panelling some of our walls.

The Results are Outstanding
We couldn't be more pleased with the results!  Among the first of five requested small projects was an attempt to turn a poorly-placed building support column into a useful tool.  The result is a small break table now surrounded by re-purposed fountain stools that once supported patrons at the Little Princess Restaurant's main dining counter (see related Blog of June 3, 2011).  The "gifts" to the Endowment aren't just the "new" heirlooms that adorn our home, but also, the blessings of having talented artisans share their skills.