Community Driven Lending Club for Local Food Investment

The Slow Money movement is built around local groups, which catalyze local food investing in a variety of ways—peer-to-peer lending, public meetings, pitch fests, and on-farm events. Local Slow Money groups are organized as informal networks and/or investment clubs. There are currently 27 groups globally, and have invested $73 million in 752 food enterprises.

FOUR CORNER’S SLOW MONEY’S GOAL IS TO BUILD A ROBUST LOCAL FOOD ECONOMY BY GIVING COMMUNITY FARMERS, GROWERS AND LOCAL FOOD ENTERPRISES A LEG UP IN THE FOUR CORNERS REGION.

We foresee:

• Making 0% interest loans to community growers and local food entrepreneurs.

• Loan funds circulate. So when a loan is paid back, it goes back into our fund for future loans!

• Loans are selected based on loanee’s potential to make the greatest positive impact on our local food economy and a set of ethics established by loan selection committee.

• All loans are voted upon by members annually, and anyone that makes a donation to the club ($250 minimum /year, $150 for grower/food entrepreneur) becomes a member and can vote on loans.

NO-INTEREST LOANS AIM TO DEVELOP AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY: GRANTS WILL BE MADE TO SMALL-SCALE FARMERS, FOOD-FOCUSED ENTREPRENEURS

October 1, 2019, by Mary Shinn, in the Durango Herald

“A new regional nonprofit, Four Corners Slow Money, wants to help develop the regional agricultural economy by providing small-scale farmers and food-focused entrepreneurs with no-interest loans.

Small growers can have trouble qualifying for traditional loans if they don’t have credit, if they require a small dollar amount or if they need flexible terms, said Sandhya Tillotson, a member of the steering committee.

“With this local loan, we can support just about anything a farmer wants to do on their farm,” she said.”