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Dear Friends,
As Thanksgiving approaches, our staff, which is 80% foreign-born, is already talking about the family recipes from "back home" they plan to cook alongside the traditional American turkey feast.
At BCNA have much to be thankful for this year. With the support of our talented staff, our dynamic and dedicated Board Members, and, of course, our generous partners and funders, we were able to help more small businesses than ever before. In fiscal year 2013 we made 290 loans totaling $1.4 million and assisted over 500 client businesses with training and advice. Additionally, we provided workshops and advice to 64 refugee clients who invested $357,469 dollars into microbusinesses, further education, and professional re-certification.
Truly a reason to give thanks!
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Last August, we got an exciting call from the staff at the New York State Office for New Americans, informing us that they had recommended BCNA for a very special donation. A few weeks later, we received 100 boxes from Google, containing a donation of 100 brand new Nexus 7 tablets.
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Deepti Sharma Kapur was dreaming of a law school career and a life in politics until the day she found herself waiting 30 minutes in lin  e to buy a cupcake from her favorite New York City food truck. That's when she thought there must be a better way - a way for food trucks to sell more and a way for her to wait less.
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 On September 30th BCNA was one of 40 New York State CDFIs at a two-day conference entitled "CDFIs: Partnering to Build New York State Communities." This annual conference is organized by Melanie Stern, Senior Program Officer at the Federation of Credit Unions, with around-the-clock assistance from Jason Chang and Ann Solomon. |
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Ezra Borut Receives 2013 Cornerstone Award
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Congratulations to Client Abdoulaye Bassande
 Abdoulaye Bassande, who was born in the Ivory Coast, began working as a car service driver two years ago. Through BCNA's IDA Program and the matched savings plan, he was able to combine a match grant of $2,000 with his savings of $2,000 and a $10,000 loan to purchase his own vehicle. His new 2008 Chrysler Town Country Minivan is perfect for airport drop-offs and pick-ups and, more importantly, owning his own car saves Abdoulaye over $500 a month in car lease payments. BCNA's IDA and Micro-enterprise Program for Refugees are funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), US Department of Health and Human Services.
Learn More About IDAs
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The Future of Social Enterprise
We were very happy to stop by Columbia Business School's Social Enterprise Conference earlier this month (even though we were among the handful of participants over 30 years old!) The goal of the conference was to provide access to industry experts, thought leaders, and practitioners to delve deeper into the ways leaders can use innovative strategies to maximize social change.
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