A New Kind of Community Finance

Most small businesses struggle to access traditional capital. Statistics tell us that, even though the total amount of money lent to small businesses is increasing again, small loans to small businesses continue to decline. Yet these small businesses are responsible for half of the jobs in our country, they add character to our communities, and they embody the American entrepreneurial spirit that's fueling our future.

  Community Sourced Capital (CSC) is a new kind of financial system that empowers communities to fund the businesses they most care about. CSC provides loans to small businesses using capital sourced directly from people in their communities.

Finance as a positive connecting experience

CSC has introduced a way for people to support businesses in their communities by sharing money. With Community Sourced Capital, anyone in a community can take part in funding a loan for a business they know by purchasing something that we call a Square, a $50 unit of the larger loan made to a business. Squares are really simple loans and they act like this: $50 loaned and $50 repaid. It’s not a donation. It’s not an investment. It’s a right-sized mechanism for moving money to a business in your community while still getting paid back.

Think about when you were a kid and would share a toy. Usually it was something you weren’t using at the moment and you trusted the person you shared it with to give it back when they were done. Sharing is a wonderful reciprocal act of trust and generosity. It builds connection. At CSC when you buy a Square, you’re essentially sharing your money with a business you know and love!

Once you’ve got a Square, you join a growing group of community funders called Squareholders. CSC keeps Squareholders up-to-date about the businesses they help fund with once-a-month email updates. Squareholders cash out monthly repayments at any time or recycle them back into new Squares to fund other loans in their community.

Finance based on transparency

Businesses repay their loans using a per-determined percent of their revenue. This builds positive transparent relationships between Squareholders and small businesses. If a business seems slow with repayments, Squareholders might help out by stopping by more often, or encouraging their friends to go to that business. That's one example of the kind of attention put into designing the Community Sourced Capital lending system. CSC takes a systems-thinking view of finance for communities.

We’ve involved almost 3000 people in creating $450,000 in loans for 29 businesses across six states. And we’re just getting started!

Join the community finance movement by taking an active role in moving capital to the small businesses that make your community great. You can tell a business in your community that they might want to seek the capital for their next upgrade from the people who benefit most, from you! Tell them about Community Sourced Capital. And if they run a campaign, we’ll give you a Square!

Imagine what it could mean for the new American Dream if communities everywhere were made stronger because the people in them not only bought local and ate local but also invested local! What if you and everyone you know could finance the businesses you want to see thrive? Imagine: a financial world connected by love, trust, and community.