Starbucks is offering up more than just your half caf-decafe, they are supporting small business through the “Create Jobs for USA” and will be donating millions to the Opportunity Finance Network to aid small businesses.
Starbucks Seeks To Boost Small Business Employment
By Dan Fastenberg
AOL Jobs
The public image of corporations has soured during the financial crisis. The boom of the 1990s created a national climate in which corporate brands were held up as national icons. But once the bubble burst, and executives were seen as breaching the public trust in the interest of their companies’ bottom line, their brands suffered as a result. Of late, that rage has taken the form of the Occupy movement, which is seeing citizens swell urban spaces to blame corporations for inequality and lack of employment in America, among other grievances.
While most American corporations have long promoted volunteer efforts, coffee giant Starbucks has just announced a project specifically aimed at creating jobs. The Seattle-based company will be donating $5 million to the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) in a bid to boost employment through microfinancing, according to a report on mediabistro.com.
“Small businesses are the backbone of America, employing more than half of all private sector workers — but this critical jobs engine has stalled,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and CEO, in a statement. “We’ve got to thaw the channels of credit so that community businesses can start hiring again. ‘Create Jobs for USA’ empowers Americans to help other Americans create and sustain jobs, with Starbucks and OFN as a catalyst….”
Starbucks’ “Create Jobs for USA” campaign is inspired by the fact that 65 percent of new jobs over the last 15 years have been created by small businesses. And so a raft of business categories, including small businesses themselves, as well as micro-enterprises and nonprofit organizations, will be eligible to apply for loans through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) selected by the campaign.
“The goal of ‘Create Jobs for USA’ is to bring people and communities together to create and sustain jobs throughout America,” Starbucks says on the campaign’s website.
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