BOWDOINHAM

A new community group is raising capital “creatively” to grow local businesses. 

The Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative originated from talks in 2011 about how to make Bowdoinham “an even better place to live, with all of the assets it has,” said David Whittlesey, one of the group’s five board members.

That conversation led to “a real focus on farms and food, but also the music and arts and businesses that support them,” he said.

The idea then developed into an entity that could provide capital to meet local business needs. 

Incorporated June 15, 2012, the Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative “stimulates, grows and sustains healthy local enterprises, creates resilient local jobs and facilitates collaboration among the for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors in the local community.” 

The focus for the Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative is on “farms, food, forests, the music, the art and the artisans that accompany them and the local businesses that support them,” Whittlesey said.

The group connects businesses proposals with local investors who can make cash available.

An update on the group’s activity in the last six months is on the docket for a Board of Selectmen’s meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m.

Initial conversations marking the birth of the initiative grew out of concerns about economic sustainability, oil prices and the exodus of the longtime credit union in town, Whittlesey said.

“Part of the whole idea also came out of the economic situation where interest rates are terribly low,” he said. Many people “would rather have their investment be in a neighbor in town,” keeping the money local along with the resulting potential for development, Whittlesey said.

The group has a screening committee that assesses loan applications and makes a recommendation to the board of directors.

The ultimate test is whether or not there are other investors in town ready to invest, Whittlesey said. 

A loan of $500 to $15,000 is expected to be repaid within 12 months, with a maximum repayment of 24 months.

So far, the Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative has granted three loans totaling $19,000 with another one in the pipeline, and ongoing conversations may  result in other additional loans in the coming months.  

Whittlesey said loans can be structured “creatively.”

The first one granted by BCDI was for a tractor to help expand Small Wonder Organics, a diversified organic vegetable farm. 

The farm borrowed $7,000 at 3 percent, with 2 percent was returned to the investor and 1 percent paid back in the form of plant starts for the Bowdoinham Public Library plant sale.

The loan allowed the farm to hire an additional employee and increase the number of community-supported agriculture shares and the number of direct sales if offers at farmers markets.

The Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative has filed for and is waiting for its nonprofit status from the IRS.

The group is not affiliated with the municipality, but works in collaboration with the town’s economic and community development committee, Whittlesey said. 

The loan process, from the vetting process to the search for investors to the disbursement of funds, averages only about three weeks, Whittlesey said. 

The community has been responsive, and more investors have volunteered than have yet been needed, he said, though demand for loans — outside of the farming community — has been slower than anticipated.

The group is looking to leverage local assets in sustainable farming, including processing, marketing and distribution.

“I think the BCDI has very much been looking at how does that happen at the very local level, and the implications of that for the Mid-coast region and more broadly, for the state,” Whittlesey said. 

The organization has been working with the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust on their joint Local Farms-Local Food program, working to link sustainable farming with the goals of land trusts in terms of land preservation.

With a tiered-fee membership of more than 40 members, Whittlesey said board members will be elected in the future by BCDI members, and screening committee members will be drawn from the membership. 

Currently serving on the board with Whittlesey are Tony Cox, Laurel Waterman-Lopez, George Christopher and Kathy Gallant. Gallant also serves on the Bowdoinham Board of Selectmen.

For more information about the Bowdoinham Community Development Initiative and its loan and investment program, visit www.bcdi.us.