Earmarks: Financial Services

Recipient:  Nebraska  Community Foundation
Location:  Lincoln,  Nebraska
Purpose:  To support HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) to continue technical assistance to rural communities in Nebraska and selected other states to increase their capacity to develop economic development strategies, enabling them to compete successfully in the global market.
Amount  Requested:   $500,000
Taxpayer  Interest:  HTC represents an asset-based community development strategy that has demonstrated its potential to increase household wealth, grow local jobs, increase community philanthropy and attract young people to rural communities that are suffering severe economic social distress.  It represents a nationally recognized approach to increase community capacity, support business initiatives, and encourage youth entrepreneurship.

Recipient:  Nebraska  Enterprise Fund
Location:  Oakland,  Nebraska
Purpose:  To increase resources for micro/small businesses through additional services, expansion of the loan program to provide loan capital to more businesses through additional community revolving loan funds, building micro program service visibility to all of the general public for years to come, and assisting businesses in filing taxes.
Amount  Requested:   $275,000
Taxpayer  Interest:  This work is filling a gap at a critical time.  Microenterprise growth, particularly in rural areas is crucial during times of economic downturn and this program – through micro-lending and a variety of technical assistance programs – facilitates and encourages the kind of entrepreneurship that creates and retains jobs.

Updated 6.11.09