National Economic Opportunity Fund

Border Economic Opportunity Fund Launches, Applies Franchising Strategies to Community Development

LAREDO, TEXAS (December 30, 2004) - The National Economic Opportunity Fund ("NEOF") announced today that it has established its first community development franchise prototype, the Border Economic Opportunity Fund ("BEOF"). This new initiative will be headquartered in Laredo, Texas and is predicted to bring over 200 jobs to Laredo through two self-sustainable businesses, both with critical benefits to the community. One business will provide a sensible health care solution for the regional population, providing aftercare services for diabetes patients. The other business is a telecommunications solutions provider to Fortune 500 companies. According to Jim Mingey, Managing Director of NEOF, "The initiative is unique in that it provides an acceleration platform and critical mass for community development while leveraging regional economic development strengths".

On behalf of BEOF, NEOF negotiated $1,000,000 in funding from the Wells Fargo Community Development Corporation to be used for economic development in Texas. Pursuant to the terms of the funding, BEOF will disperse these monies in the following ways: First, BEOF will advance proceeds for the franchise and small business development services provided by NEOF. Second, as the prototype franchise, BEOF will make loans and purchase interests in two of NEOF's platform businesses. These companies will employ telemedicine and telecommunication business strategies that are closely linked to the community's interests

In reference to the developments in Laredo, Bob Taylor, President of the Wells Fargo Community Development Corporation, stated, "We are excited about supporting this entrepreneurial innovation because we believe it will accelerate community development efforts, especially in Texas"

The franchise model designed by NEOF is intended to place economic development into the hands of local community leaders while providing them with many of the advantages enjoyed by national organizations. Essentially, the model is a system of leveraging community development financing into a platform of sustainable businesses in high need communities, and then incubating these businesses through a national network of services and shared knowledge. The key to this model is that it prioritizes community input, control, and participation in profit sharing. Also, each new community that participates in the model will record and share their experiences in an open-sourced format. As a franchisee, BEOF and its partners in Laredo will have access to this continuously expanding library of best practice techniques along with the opportunity to contribute to larger scale community development.

BEOF was sponsored by Azteca Economic Development and Preservation Corporation and is also supported by the Laredo Development Foundation. According to Laredo's Mayor Betty Flores, "BEOF will serve as an excellent entrepreneurial tool for aligning neighborhood interests with regional economic priorities."

BEOF will also act as the South West Border BusinessLINC Coalition. BusinessLINC is a national program of Business Roundtable aimed at stimulating economic growth in distressed cities and rural areas by fostering business-to-business partnerships. According to Don Graves, Director of Public Policy at Business Roundtable and Executive Director of BusinessLINC, "We are pleased that NEOF has chosen to emphasize supplier diversity in its franchise model. Business partnerships between large companies and small, minority firms can lead to increased business growth and success for all businesses involved, as well as generate important benefits to the community. I believe the accelerated nature of the BEOF model can lead to further gains in the BusinessLINC program."

BEOF is the first installation of NEOF's commercial franchise system aimed at accelerating small business development and job creation. BEOF executes small business incubation activities by combining and leveraging neighborhood and regional economic opportunities.

NEOF is a community development financial intermediary which applies its specialized, public-private franchise model to all forms of community development finance, currently focusing on financing telecommunication and telemedicine businesses that complement federal redevelopment programs.

BusinessLINC is an initiative of Business Roundtable focused on promoting economic development by fostering business-to-business partnerships that strengthen and grow small businesses.

Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading corporations with a combined workforce of more than 10 million employees in the United States and $4 trillion in revenues. The chief executives are committed to advocating public policies that foster vigorous economic growth and a dynamic global economy.