Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy
= operators of the SHARE Microcredit Program
URL = http://www.centerforneweconomics.org/content/share-microcredit-program
Description
Occupy Secession:
"Broad-based democratic access to land is only one aspect of an agrarian economy. A credit system that favors small locally owned businesses is also essential. The Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE) in my home region of the Berkshires provides a model for consumers to share the risk in the start-up costs of small businesses. The objective of SHARE is to make productive loans to people who are unable to secure normal bank financing but who have the kind of small, locally owned enterprises that produce quality goods and services for local consumption. SHARE members open savings accounts at a local participating bank, and these accounts are used by SHARE to collateralize loans. This kind of lending requires that the community separate the functions of banking: the bank makes the loans and handles the accounting, but the lending decisions—based on a set of social, ecological, and financial criteria established by SHARE—are made by the community of depositors.
SHARE has collateralized loans to a goat-cheese producer for the stainless steel equipment in the milking room, to a home knitter for a bulk supply of yarn, to the owner of a working draft-horse team for materials for a barn, to a kite maker for a quantity of waterproof fabric, and to a music teacher for a piano. The payback record on SHARE-collateralized loans has been 100 per cent, both because of their scale and because of community support for the loan recipients. SHARE members help maintain this perfect record by recommending these small businesses to their friends.
The SHARE loan-collateralization program is simple to operate and easily copied. Similar programs have started around the United States, using the model created in the Berkshires. It is the “grandmother principal” which has made SHARE a success. When people without credit histories decide to go into business, they frequently turn to a family member, such as a grandmother, for help. Instead of lending directly, the grandmother might offer a savings account as collateral for a bank loan. The SHARE program simply extends “the circle of grandmothers,” creating a family based on place." (http://occupysecession.com/2012/07/18/new-agrarians-local-innovators/)