Loans for local entrepreneurs to launch or expand their small businesses.

Our Mission

The Entrepreneurial Loan Project understands the empowering and innovative impact of entrepreneurship. This project aims to provide small, low-interest loans to enable small businesses to begin, improve or expand their operations in ways that are both socially beneficial and financially sustainable.

Target Clients

The Entrepreneurial Loan Project targets low-income members of the Grinnell Community who may not have the means to participate in entrepreneurship, but would benefit from an income-generating business.

In addition, this project collaborates with local entrepreneurs who have worked with  traditional banking models, both personally or professionally, but now find that they cannot obtain the capital they require for their business proposal. SEG grants access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable to local entrepreneurs.

SEG has worked with small independent shops, artisans, and hobby retailers. Many of the shops have expressed interest in using loans from SEG to expand or improve their businesses. These entrepreneurs find that they cannot obtain adequate capital for their business proposal, and our loans help fill this gap.

How We Operate

Business Mentors

In addition to capital, we pair entrepreneurs with business mentors. Business mentors consist of entrepreneurs in the region, loosely affiliated with the college, who have a range of expertise (e.g. marketing, finances), that our clients need in order to increase their chances for success.

Advisory Committee

Several established entrepreneurs sit on an Advisory Committee that provide guidance to SEG during the review of loan applications. In addition, they collaborate with SEG to give feedback to entrepreneurs upon acceptance or rejection.

To apply for an Entrepreneurial Loan please contact grinnellmicrofinance@gmail.com.