Conference Presentation, Panel
Investing With Impact in Underserved Small Businesses
Milken InstituteAron Betru, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Kimberlee Cornett, Annie Donovan, John Lettieri, Kim Saunders, Aaron Better
- Continued passive engagement risks preventing the full realization of American systemic prosperity, necessitating an intentional commitment to avoid default modes.
- Failure to reinstate programs like "Ban the box" for felons and eliminate banking bias via technology will hinder capital access pipelines and perpetuate institutional barriers for women and minorities.
- Misguided implementation of the Opportunity Zones program may result in a real estate-driven model that fails to holistically transform lives or focus on small business creation.
- Properly leveraging Opportunity Zones funds alongside minority banks and CDFIs, combined with state/local transparent data and existing tools like SBA loans and LIHTC, is expected to generate transformative results and efficient investor-community matching.
- CDFI failure to pair financing with technical assistance and "hand-holding" services will likely lead to small business failures, as support structures are often deemed more critical than capital alone.
- Softening Community Reinvestment Act rules, invalidly defining assessment areas, or failing to clarify regulations for fintechs could cause financial institutions to dissipate local capital responsibilities and create negative systemic consequences.
- Maintaining physical, place-based bank presence is considered essential to satisfy borrower needs for in-person capital discussions.
- Small business owners must be educated on capital management and avoiding personal guarantees to effectively leverage their own collateral.
- Stagnation of the bottom economic quintile is projected to prevent the creation of 9 million net jobs, whereas bringing this segment to baseline growth levels would unlock significant potential for national demand, prosperity, and economic health.
- Inability to secure capital access in disadvantaged communities poses dire consequences for families and societal problems, while success is expected to sustain the nation's status as a preeminent global peacekeeper.
- Failure to maintain moral leadership and ethical standards risks ceding influence to nations like China and Russia, whereas adherence allows for the export of American values and middle-class entrepreneurship.