A Northwestern student organization has launched a two-week “grassroots campaign” called Invest Evanston to raise funds for small businesses in the community around its campus.
Officially begun May 2, “Invest Evanston” sprang from student group Lending for Evanston and Northwestern Development (LEND), which began in February 2010.
LEND is “a microfinance organization that provides business training and small loans for entrepreneurs in the community in need of those resources,” according to Sahil Mehta, LEND’s director of internal strategy and Invest Evanston’s co-founder.
Mehta, a McCormick junior, said the idea for a separate campaign was born during a meeting between LEND and the Evanston Black Business Alliance.
“We went to that meeting and found out there’s a whole group of contractors that were kind of disenfranchised from financial services and unable to secure government contracts for work,” Mehta said. “We saw that as a call to action to step up our game and take this a little more aggressively in terms of expansion and scaling.”
Medill sophomore Shiraz Ahmed, the media coordinator for Invest Evanston, said the campaign “is meant to take the fervor and student support” from previous NU campaigns including NU Stands with Pakistan and NU Stands with Haiti.
“We’re tapping into the same socially active network at Northwestern,” he said.
Weinberg junior Rory O’Byrne, the CEO and co-president of LEND, said he’s a “huge supporter” of the campaign.
“I think it’s important we raise an awareness of the economic divide in Evanston among Northwestern students,” he said. “Most kids don’t get a chance to go into west Evanston and see the disparity. They see million dollar mansions along Sheridan Road, but there are people really suffering.”
Mehta and Ahmed said Invest Evanston has approached many large student groups on campus, including Associated Student Government, WAVE Productions, A&O Productions, Mayfest, Northwestern Community Development Corps, Global Engagement Summit and Freshmen Urban Program asking for their support, though the help they seek is not necessarily financial.
The campaign seeks participation from these groups and other students “through word of mouth, manpower, manning our booths and small donations from students,” Mehta said.
Ahmed said the group asks for donations of about $5.
According to Mehta, a goal of the campaign is to help local business owners and residents to avoid debt traps, loan sharks, donations from family members and other forms of income that are not “sustainable.”
“The most horrible form of irony in the United States and Evanston is those in most need of loans and low interest loans are specifically cut out from those services,” Mehta said.
To assist with this issue, Mehta said, the campaign aims to build a community fund that will be managed and distributed by LEND.
He said while Invest Evanston is financially driven, LEND also focuses on educating small business owners and residents.
Two clients have already gone through a LEND training program developed by industry professionals, Kellogg students and advice from “parallel” microfinance organizations at Brown University, Yale University and Rutgers University, Mehta said. As part of the program, each entrepreneur is paired with two NU undergraduate students to write a business plan.
Ahmed said he hopes the campaign will promote positive relations between NU and the Evanston community, and he believes students will want to participate for this reason.
“Ever since ‘Brothelgate,’ ASG and students have been looking for a way to show how they can give back without comprising things that would harm us,” he said. “It’s a way for students to show that we do care about the city that’s around us.”
Mehta said in his experience, NU students want to engage in issues like this in a productive manner.
“A small contribution form a large number of people can really make a difference,” he said. “If we have a dollar from each student, four to six loans can be made right there.”
O’Byrne said implementing a model of microlending is a way of furthering community development, a positive step for NU students to learn, and for the community of west Evanston who will receive the loans.
“This is something that’s worthy and right underneath our noses,” O’Bryne said.
