Saturday, October 22, 2011 from 9:00-4:00pm

UC Hastings College of the Law,

Snodgrass Hall, 198 McAllister St.

San Francisco, CA

Don’t miss this opportunity for a free, private consultation on financial issues that matter to you with experts from the Financial Planning Association and highly qualified certified financial planner professionals. There will also be workshops on a variety of financial topics throughout the day.  Stay as little or as long as you’d like.  It’s all free!  Register for free at:  www.financialplanningdays.org/SanFrancisco or 1.877.861.7826.

New Fair & Manageable Alternative to Payday Loans

Seeking Partners for Pilot Alternative to Payday Loans

One PacificCoast Bank is excited to announce its pilot of a new alternative to payday loans: the Pal loan. This program will allow individuals to borrow from $500-$1000 dollars to cover an unexpected expense and pay it back in small monthly installments of 8-12 months. This loan is intended to provide a manageable alternative to expensive payday and car title loans that often keep people trapped in debt cycle.

In addition to the loan itself, this program can help build credit, includes financial tips and tools, and provides incentives to save. Our optional Automatic Payment and Savings program includes an immediate $25 incentive that gets deposited into a new free savings account for the borrower. Upon repayment, the same monthly amount will automatically transfer into their savings account each month until/unless the former borrower cancels it.

The program meets or exceeds the FDIC’s guidelines for small dollar loans, with an interest rate of 18% and a $30 financed loan origination fee. This fee is incorporated into the monthly loan payments; it is not paid up front.

The program launched on July 15th 2011 with four partner employers, and One PacificCoast Bank is seeking additional local employers to partner with us. Participating employers will let their staff know that the loan is available, will help them with application questions, and will provide employment verification. There are no fees or financial risks to the employer.

Employer requirements (for-profit or non-profit):

* 25 or more employees
* Most employees are year-round, not seasonal
* Offer direct deposit of payroll to employees

Interested employers should contact Erin Kilmer Neel at One PacificCoast Foundation, ekilmer@onepcf.org or 510.663.2253.

For more information about One Pacific Coast Bank,FSB, go to http://opcb.com. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. CDFI Certified Bank.

ReliaTech is a local computer service and e-waste recycling organization that offers reliable and reasonably priced computer service by certified technicians. They offer carry-in service at the San Pablo and San Francisco stores, and on-site service throughout the Bay Area. ReliaTech has a “No Fix, No Fee” guarantee and also offers discounts to nonprofits.

ReliaTech is the nonprofit social enterprise of The Stride Center, which is a social venture nonprofit empowering economic self-sufficiency for individuals and communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. ReliaTech provides on-the-job training for Stride Center participants and hires graduates of the program. All of Reliatech interns and employees are chosen and trained for their ability to treat every customer with respect and dignity. Learn more at www.reliatech.org.

Bay Area Green Tours is hosting its second Farm to Fork tour of the season on August 15th.

About a year ago, the bank and foundation decided that they wanted to officially “go green.” Both had already been practicing many sustainable behaviors since day one, like recycling all paper and plastics, but both wanted to do more to show their commitment to environmental sustainability–and, as recognition for their green practices, to be certified as Bay Area Green Businesses. The bank and foundation submitted their applications to the Bay Area Green Business Program and started on the road to certification. Now, both entities are just a few steps away from receiving the official Green Business certification. While the process hasn’t been very difficult, it has been enlightening. So we thought we would share with you some of the interesting things we have learned along the way.

The Basics

To be certified as a green business by the Bay Area Green Business Program, organizations must complete an application that enumerates the changes they will make to their daily operations to incorporate greener practices.  There are four main categories in which the business must make these changes: Solid Waste Reduction & Recycling; Energy Conservation; Water Conservation; and Pollution Prevention.  Within each of the categories, there are numerous ways to meet these changes.  Some ways are mandatory to receive certification (for example, organizations are required to recycle certain materials, such as cardboard, newspapers, cans, and plastic bottles) and other times there is a list of ways and a given number must be met to comply. 

Putting It in Writing

In addition, organizations must adopt an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, stating that the organization makes a conscious effort to “go green.”  The Bay Area Green Business Program provides this checklist as part of the application, and can even provide a model Environmental Preferable Purchasing Policy to organizations to help facilitate the application process.

(more…)

Join OneCalifornia Foundation, Northern California Land Trust, Electric Embers, TransFair USA, Global Exchange, Mandela Foods, Inkworks Press,  and many other leading-edge Bay Area organizations as we celebrate and discuss just and sustainable alternatives to our economy at the JASEcon Festival. The festival is Saturday, September 26 from 10am to 4pm at the Humanist Hall at 390 27th Street in Oakland.

We’ll be on the Resources panel, and other panel session topics include Co-op 101 - Introduction to Worker Co-ops, Food Security & Urban Agriculture, and Building the Alternative.

The festival also includes an expo for related non-profits working to build a new economy, and a marketplace of like-minded businesses. A few table spaces are still available (Nonprofit tables are $40-50 and Marketplace tables are $75).  Delicious and healthy foods will be provided through the generous donations of Arizmendi, Cheese Board, and several other food co-ops.

The event is still seeking sponsors ($100-$200), if you’re interested in supporting the cause.

Contact Bernard at info@jasecon.org or 510 872 0930 to get involved.

Please come join us as we share ways to make our society a better place for all! See you there!

September is here, ringing in the new school year.  As popularity of green businesses and environmentally-friendly products continue to grow in the Bay Area, you might be wondering-is it possible to go green at school, too?  Yes!  Oakland Unwrapped has many local businesses that offer environmentally-friendly products for children heading back to school.  One of our most recent additions, One Small Step, is just one of these businesses working to get parents and children to “think and act ‘green,’ one small step at a time.”

One Small Step specializes in providing everything and anything you could possibly need to pack a waste-free lunch for your child or yourself.  A waste-free lunch is just what it sounds like: food and beverage from home packaged in reusable storage containers, bags, or bottles, with reusable napkins and utensils, all packed in a reusable lunch box.  One Small Step offers all these items and more in a variety of creative styles and colors.  You won’t find any un-cool lunch boxes here! 

The beauty of packing a waste-free lunch is that it is healthier and saves you money in the long run.  According to One Small Step, you can save up to one-third of your annual food budget just by sending waste-free lunches with your kids (see their FAQ page for more details).  And homemade food is always healthier-and usually tastier-than store-bought processed foods.  (Why else would college kids keep coming home for a home cooked meal?)  Founder Renata Bodon has also learned this lesson through personal experience.  She discovered that, by avoiding store-bought, pre-packaged food and packing her daughter a waste-free lunch, her daughter was eating healthier and fresher food while learning about the positive environmental impact she was having at such a young age.

One Small Step makes it easy for you, too, to save money on your food budget, eat healthier, and minimize your food-related waste by selling all these products online in one location.  One Small Step also donates 10% of all profits to community organizations, taking one more small step in bettering our communities.

For more information check out One Small Step on Oakland Unwrapped: http://oaklandunwrapped.org/onesmallstep/

OneCalifornia Staff

OneCalifornia Bank and Foundation opened their doors in Oakland two years ago on June 27! On Thursday June 25, 2009, OneCalifornia Foundation joined the Bank in celebrating their second anniversary with a mixer catered by Seison, a local restaurant in Oakland’s Washington Inn Hotel. When OneCalifornia’s founders, Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor, and their team opened the Bank and Foundation two years ago they were hoping to create an effective and sustainable community development organization. In these two years, many residents, businesses, and nonprofit organizations in Oakland and the Bay Area have been supported by OneCalifornia Bank’s financial services and OneCalifornia Foundation’s charitable giving.

Most of the Foundation’s activities over the past two years have focused on developing projects that address the financial and money management needs of local individuals and families, and the training, technology, and marketing needs of small businesses.  Over 100 people have attended OneCAL SAFE (Checking and Lifetime Savings Accounts with Financial Education) financial literacy courses since the Foundation’s inception. The Foundation also has over 150 local businesses on its Oakland Unwrapped! website and partners with several local nonprofits in various community development missions. Says Erin Kilmer Neel, OneCalifornia Foundation’s Program Officer, “The Foundation is an exciting place to be, and I think a real benefit to my home of Oakland and the Bay Area as a whole. We are helping families save their money, helping businesses start and grow every day.  We are always working to improve our existing programs as well as solve new problems in innovative ways.  On top of all of this work, it’s amazing and powerful to be able to offer people bank accounts and loans.” 

Meanwhile, the Bank has helped the Bay Area community by providing bank accounts to the underbanked, making loans to local medium and small businesses, and promoting the financial development of various nonprofit organizations. According to Russ Haycock, OneCalifornia Bank’s Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, “The past two years have been exciting and humbling for the banking industry.  What a great time to start a community development bank.  We can hold our heads high as a management team and founders for the strong and healthy performance of OneCalifornia Bank. This is the beginning of a very meaningful journey, and we are poised to make a significant difference for the future of the industry.” OneCalifornia Bank has not fallen prey to the financial crisis that many other banks have succumbed to and thus has been able to truly help the Bay Area community these past two years.

In the two years OneCalifornia has been open, not only has it gained certification as a Community Development Financial Institution, it has also helped many small businesses survive in this difficult economic climate, furnished SBA loans, provided financial literacy classes, aided various nonprofits, and is even in the process of gaining green certification from the Bay Area Green Business Program. OneCalifornia is growing every day and helping facilitate economic opportunity in Oakland and throughout the Bay Area. The Foundation is also currently in the process of starting a program in the Mission District in San Francisco to assist individuals in managing their money with innovative financial products. Every day, OneCalifornia helps more people by providing them with a place to bank that doesn’t funnel money out of their community and a place where everyone has an opportunity to improve their financial situation.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support!