Goldman Sachs – "10,000 Small Business Initiative" – $500 mm

Well I would love to say that Goldman Sachs, after reading the CALL TO ACTION we sent out on Sunday on the Daily Beast, responded with this $500 million initiative, but this is clearly something they have been working on for some time. The“10,000 Small Business Imitative” was announced today will attempt an integrative and collaborative approach to address the barriers to growth for small business. ( read about it here on the GS web-site) The approach appears thoughtful and multi-faceted, much like their 10,000 Women Initiative, and appears to be a bold new step in corporate philanthropy. Only five times bigger!!!!!! The program highlights include:
– Business and Management Education
– Mentoring and Networking
– Access to Capital
– Advisory Council
I congratulate Goldman on this program and will look forward to reading a lot more about it. Clearly they are trying to respond to what they see as an urgent need, job creation and job security. And it is an urgent, urgent need.

We have to celebrate this. We have to. Why? Because the public has called them to do something, something big, and they did… and we want them and others to do more. Should we expect this from them? Yes we should. Let’s expect Goldman to be leaders in helping to rebuild our economy.

There is much that needs to be done around economic security, job creation, and financial literacy and let’s all use our creativity on how to make a difference in these areas. I am working on a proposal that would be PERFECT for a financial institution partner so if you are one of those, leave me a note! Women’s Funds around this country are “shovel ready.” By this I mean that money can have immediate impact as it is scaling up programs that are already in place and working. More to come on this…..

Goldman, Congrats. JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Blackrock, Fortress, and more ….. What are you going to do? The collective lack of leadership and responsibility of our country’s largest financial institutions played a role in creating and enabling this financial crisis and I would like to call you all to create your own “10,000 SOMETHING Initiative.” “To those to which much has been given, much is expected.”