Invest in Chicago Education Fund
Donation protected
This summer, this campaign's goal is to register 300 community investors in Chicago. Your donation will pay for educational materials like flyers, educational tools, and payments to campaign staffers.
Hi my name is Davis Jones. I'm part of a group that's working to educate people about new securities laws that enable people to make real, cash-generating investments in local businesses. As it stands now, only 1% of the $30 trillion that Americans invest in stocks and bonds goes to community businesses and that's why power is now centralized in the hands of the few. I'm leading an effort in Chicago to build the community capital movement and hoping it will be a game-changer for the American economy. Specifically, I'm aiming to:
• Make it affordable and easy for businesses to give their communities a chance to make real investments in them through open-sourced legal tools and educational resources.
• Educating the public about how to evaluate investment opportunities in community businesses and building awareness about recent changes to investing laws.
Why is this happening now?
Since May of 2016, it has been legal for people invest as little as $50 or $100 into small businesses in the US through government registered websites. The problem is that busy small business owners need support to navigate these new laws. Also, most people don't know that these new laws make local investing possible! The Big Deal Campaign is leading the local investing movement in Chicago by offering free support to local businesses and building awareness about local investing through education and advocacy.
Women welcome!
Because community investing involves being engaged with communities, this type of investing tends to support women-owned businesses. Most of the leaders of the community capital movement are women like Florence Hardy (Chicago), Amy Cortese (New York City), Amy Pearl (Portland), Angela Barbash (Detroit), and Janice Shade (Vermont). When it's about community, it's not just a boy's club.
How does a local investment work?
We have worked with business owners and legal specialists to create a new kind of stock that is tailored to the needs of community businesses like cafés, craft businesses, and small professional firms--not big corporations. The Big Deal provides tools to help community-based businesses issue shares of community stock through local investing websites so that small business owners don't have to get into debt to grow their businesses. Jeff Bezos doesn't put up his house when Amazon.com raises money, so why should everyone else?
How do I make money from community investments?
Once Chicagoans like you own community shares of a small businesses, they'll start receiving cash dividends based on how well the business is doing within months. Learn the details of how community stock ownership works here . As more and more community-based businesses issue shares, new stock exchanges will be set up to move America's economy away from Wall Street and back to main street. Eventually, big investors like pension funds will invest a portion of their assets into community businesses--not just in large corporations. That's a big deal.
Who is moving the Big Deal forward?
The Big Deal campaign is being led by Davis Jones , the owner of a business education company in Chicago who has been working on this concept since 2012 with people from the private and public sectors. Here's a picture of Davis Jones, the Big Deal Campaign's founder, representing Chicago in Washington DC with members of the SEC, the Small Business Administration, FINRA, and other local leaders in 2017:

Other people leading the Big Deal Campaign are:
• Ludell Jones , Communications Lead
• Rick Colosimo , Legal Guy
• Andy Angelos , Strategy Guy
• John Jones , CPA / Administrative Guy
• Jamie Fleischel , Media Guy
...YOU. Also, if you're interested in volunteering let us know.
We are at the beginning of a local investing movement and are in it for the long haul.
Read more about the decline of independent business in America:
- "Numbers show a long-term economic shift away from entrepreneurship and new business formation." - Bloomberg, September 2016
- "Corporate profits have reached exceptionally high levels as industries become more and more concentrated in the hands of a few dominant players." - Economic Innovation Group Report, February 2017
- "60% of US metro areas see more businesses close than open." - Zerohedge, February 2017
- "Americans in small counties are much less likely to start new businesses, a trend that jeopardizes the economic future of vast swaths of the country." - The Washington Post, May 2016
- "Fewer young people than ever are entering the world of entrepreneurship." - The New York Times, January 2017
Hi my name is Davis Jones. I'm part of a group that's working to educate people about new securities laws that enable people to make real, cash-generating investments in local businesses. As it stands now, only 1% of the $30 trillion that Americans invest in stocks and bonds goes to community businesses and that's why power is now centralized in the hands of the few. I'm leading an effort in Chicago to build the community capital movement and hoping it will be a game-changer for the American economy. Specifically, I'm aiming to:
• Make it affordable and easy for businesses to give their communities a chance to make real investments in them through open-sourced legal tools and educational resources.
• Educating the public about how to evaluate investment opportunities in community businesses and building awareness about recent changes to investing laws.
Why is this happening now?
Since May of 2016, it has been legal for people invest as little as $50 or $100 into small businesses in the US through government registered websites. The problem is that busy small business owners need support to navigate these new laws. Also, most people don't know that these new laws make local investing possible! The Big Deal Campaign is leading the local investing movement in Chicago by offering free support to local businesses and building awareness about local investing through education and advocacy.
Women welcome!
Because community investing involves being engaged with communities, this type of investing tends to support women-owned businesses. Most of the leaders of the community capital movement are women like Florence Hardy (Chicago), Amy Cortese (New York City), Amy Pearl (Portland), Angela Barbash (Detroit), and Janice Shade (Vermont). When it's about community, it's not just a boy's club.
How does a local investment work?
We have worked with business owners and legal specialists to create a new kind of stock that is tailored to the needs of community businesses like cafés, craft businesses, and small professional firms--not big corporations. The Big Deal provides tools to help community-based businesses issue shares of community stock through local investing websites so that small business owners don't have to get into debt to grow their businesses. Jeff Bezos doesn't put up his house when Amazon.com raises money, so why should everyone else?
How do I make money from community investments?
Once Chicagoans like you own community shares of a small businesses, they'll start receiving cash dividends based on how well the business is doing within months. Learn the details of how community stock ownership works here . As more and more community-based businesses issue shares, new stock exchanges will be set up to move America's economy away from Wall Street and back to main street. Eventually, big investors like pension funds will invest a portion of their assets into community businesses--not just in large corporations. That's a big deal.
Who is moving the Big Deal forward?
The Big Deal campaign is being led by Davis Jones , the owner of a business education company in Chicago who has been working on this concept since 2012 with people from the private and public sectors. Here's a picture of Davis Jones, the Big Deal Campaign's founder, representing Chicago in Washington DC with members of the SEC, the Small Business Administration, FINRA, and other local leaders in 2017:
Other people leading the Big Deal Campaign are:
• Ludell Jones , Communications Lead
• Rick Colosimo , Legal Guy
• Andy Angelos , Strategy Guy
• John Jones , CPA / Administrative Guy
• Jamie Fleischel , Media Guy
...YOU. Also, if you're interested in volunteering let us know.
We are at the beginning of a local investing movement and are in it for the long haul.
Read more about the decline of independent business in America:
- "Numbers show a long-term economic shift away from entrepreneurship and new business formation." - Bloomberg, September 2016
- "Corporate profits have reached exceptionally high levels as industries become more and more concentrated in the hands of a few dominant players." - Economic Innovation Group Report, February 2017
- "60% of US metro areas see more businesses close than open." - Zerohedge, February 2017
- "Americans in small counties are much less likely to start new businesses, a trend that jeopardizes the economic future of vast swaths of the country." - The Washington Post, May 2016
- "Fewer young people than ever are entering the world of entrepreneurship." - The New York Times, January 2017
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Organizer
Davis Jones
Organizer
Chicago, IL
