It's in the card.

American Express launches the Community Business Card

Everyone dreams. But not everyone dreams of starting their own business. Unfortunately for this special group of entrepreneurs and small business owners, these dreams turn all too often into nightmares because of lack of capital to purchase essential equipment and needed supplies to keep the venture going.

Suddenly the door to opportunity is slammed shut--banks deny you the chance to make a difference in your life and your community. They turn you down for loans and lines of credit. This familiar dilemma has you scrambling and frantically searching for a solution.

Don't give up just yet! Turn on your computer and log on to the American Express (AmEx) Community Business Website (www.home3.americanexpress.com/sm allbusiness/communitybusiness/splash .asp?). On April 17, 2001, AmEx launched a new source of funding for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to start and grow their companies.

At the very core of this program is the new AmEx Community Business Credit Card. Designed for microenterprises with fewer than five employees and a capital need of less than $35,000 a year, the card works like this: each time the business owner uses the card, AmEx will contribute 1% of that purchase to one of three select Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDO), which in turn provide loans and technical assistance to the microenterprise requesting the capital.

The MDO ACCION (www.accion .org/main.asp) provides small loans and training to help low-income business owners climbing the ladder to success. ACCION USA lends in New York, greater Chicago, Atlanta, Texas, New Mexico, and San Diego. Count Me In (www.count-me-in.org) is an online microlender, providing business loans and training to women who want to start their own enterprise. And the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO; www.microenterpriseworks.org) is a national association dedicated to the development of microenterprise organizations throughout the United States. AEO member organizations include the Oakland Business Development Corp. (www.obdc.com), which provides loans to businesses in the Oakland Bay, California, area, contact the Virginia Community Development Loan Fund (www .vcdlf.org; 804-233-2014), whose mission is to develop alternative funding models to facilitate economic development in minority communities. Also try the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute Inc. (www.deibus.org), which trains and assists low-income individuals in entrepreneurship and economic literacy.

In addition, AmEx has signed agreements with 11 organizations that will market the card to their members, three of whom include: the National Association for the Self Employed, the National Dental Association and the National Medical Association.

To show the importance of such programs and their impact, Richard Tambor, senior vice president of Small Business Lending for American Express, points out that, "Harnessing our mutual passions and strengths, we can create the single largest, non-government source of funding in the history of microenterprises in the United States."