Co-Founder, Chair of the Board of Directors
Community Investment Collaborative (CIC)
Charlottesville
What is new and exciting with you now or since your LEAD
VIRGINIA class year?
When I applied to LEAD VIRGINIA in December, 2011 we had just
incorporated a new micro enterprise development organization in
Charlottesville, VA. The Community Investment Collaborative (CIC)
leverages community resources to provide education and capital to
entrepreneurs who have difficulty accessing funding from traditional sources. As a co-founder I was
asked to bring my nonprofit management and governance expertise to this grassroots effort to expand
entrepreneurship in our low/moderate income, minority and previously incarcerated communities. Having
previously founded the Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE), I was familiar with developing a company
and programmatic elements from the ground up, but not in this arena. By building on each others' —
and the broader community's — experience and expertise the Community Investment Collaborative has
successfully grown into a full-fledged entity with two paid staff, a strong board of directors, 31 graduates
of our educational program with 5 start up/expansion loans made to date. In addition, CIC recently won
the Community Award given annually by the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council. In our first year,
we utilized more than 9,500 hours of professionals' volunteer time - as discussion group leaders, mentors,
board and staff - a conservative value of this time is $500,000-$750,000. The expansion of professional
staff has enabled me to step aside from daily responsibilities as volunteer Executive Director to focus
more on outreach and strategy as Chair of the Board of Directors. I have also been able to consult with
other jurisdictions about their fledgling micro enterprise development programs. We have developed a
model that not only builds social capital, but relies on it!
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