Starbucks Launches 'Create Jobs for USA'

The has teamed up with Opportunity Finance Network to launch Create Jobs for USA, which will "pool donations from Starbucks customers, partners (employees) and concerned citizens into a nationwide fund for community business lending."

According to a Starbucks issued press release, Create Jobs for USA will accept donations online at www.CreateJobsforUSA.org and at nearly 6,800 company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States. The program started at Starbucks locations on Tuesday. 

Donors who contribute $5 or more will receive a red, white, and blue wristband with the message “Indivisible.” According to the release, the wristband is designed to serve as a symbol of Americans uniting with other Americans to help create jobs. One hundred percent of donations will go to Opportunity Finance Network [OFN] to help fund loans to community businesses—including small businesses, micro enterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing— all across the country committed to creating and sustaining jobs, as stated in the release.

“Small businesses are the backbone of America, employing more than half of all private sector workers, but this critical jobs engine has stalled. 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 and the Indivisible wristband as a symbol of our country’s unity,” Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said in the release.

According to the press release, OFN represents a nationwide network of 180 Community Development Financial Institutions [CDFIs] set up to provide financing to community businesses in underserved markets where accessing credit through traditional lending institutions is challenging or not available. The Create Jobs for USA Fund at OFN will be seeded with a $5 million contribution from the Starbucks Foundation.

Every $5 donation will result in $35 in financing to support community businesses, as stated in the release. The CDFI community lenders will issue $30 in financing, on average, for each $5 donation through their respective financing sources.

According to the release, "based on conservative forecasting models developed by OFN with input from independent economists, one new job will be created or retained for approximately every $21,000 in loans – or approximately every $3,000 in donations. Since CDFIs in the OFN network have an average 98 percent loan repayment rate, virtually every $1 donated will be re-loaned indefinitely, compounding the job-creation impact."

Are you interested in making a donation and receiving a bracelet? There's a Bensalem-area Starbucks at 3619 Horizon Blvd., Trevose.