Allowing Enterprise: Federal Microenterprise Policy Project

About this grant

The Allowing Enterprise: Federal Microenterprise Policy Project enables the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) to provide funding and technical assistance to state micro-enterprise organizations and assist in the development of federal micro-enterprise policy. Through the project, CFED assisted the creation of state micro-enterprise associations in more than 30 states. In 2000, CFED formed the National Fund for Enterprise Development (NFED) to serve as a national intermediary to support the development of state intermediary strategies.Funding will enable CFED and NFED to combine their strategies into a unified approach to make micro-enterprise services more accessible to low-income micro-entrepreneurs. Objectives include helping established state micro-enterprise organizations (SMOs) — which include both associations and intermediaries — engage in significant policy activities at the state level; supporting the efforts of recently developed SMOs to increase and sustain organizational capacity; and encourage the efforts of four emerging SMOs to develop capacity.Accomplishments during the past year included awarding 19 grants to SMOs for organizing and policy activities; conducting an annual conference for SMOs to discuss emerging issues, common experiences and future strategic plans; creating a Web site; consolidating best practices, strategies and resources for SMOs in a quarterly series; and developing standardized statewide data collection methods for SMOs.