To celebrate the 250th anniversary of its popular beer, Guinness & Company has announced that it will partner with the Clinton Global Initiative to develop a micro-lending program for underfunded prospective entrepreneurs in America.
The commitment, made through the company’s new global philanthropic program called the Arthur Guinness Fund, will launch with a $750,000 investment in the independent nonprofit Youth Business America.
Youth Business America (YBA) was established in 2008 through a Clinton Global Initiative commitment by Youth Business International (YBI), an international nonprofit founded by the Prince of Wales that leads a global network of independent entrepreneurship support initiatives in different countries.
YBA gives entrepreneurs in underserved communities a loan, a volunteer mentor, and other business development services – a model which has allowed these otherwise unfunded entrepreneurs to see survival rates similar to those of the small enterprise startup market.
The Arthur Guinness Fund grant will go toward expanding YBA’s reach to more local communities, in which the country’s already weak job market is at its worst – the nonprofit estimates that the unemployment rate in many of YBA’s underserved communities is more than 25 percent.
The Guinness grant will also go toward helping the nonprofit’s administration costs, and will allow Guinness & Company staff to serve as mentors to the participating entrepreneurs.
"Youth Business America and Guinness believe that there is a real opportunity to take advantage of two factors in America – the long-standing commitment to small business, and the culture of volunteerism – to build a program that promotes self-employment and creates jobs using the resources and skills of the business sector," the organizations announced.
Support for entrepreneurs also means support for the economy as a whole, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that startup companies accounted for more than 14 percent of hiring between 1993 and 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported.
