You've heard of "Buy Local". Invest Local brings us to a whole new level. To "Buy Local" we need local businesses who are using local resources to create products and services for us to buy — keeping our money local.

Local businesses need capital. That's where you come in. Join us! Fill out the Local Investor Form. The more we invest in our local economy, the more we can keep our resources circulating in our community, where we can depend on them for years to come.

By funding our local businesses — whether owned by a single person, a partnership, a family, a non-profit, municipality, or cooperative — we will have a living, local economy that will support life here in our communities.

Local Investment Clearinghouse

PV Local First's Local Investment Clearinghouse is a means for local investors and community-based businesses seeking investment in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden County, Massachusetts to work together to build our local economy. Participating businesses include:

• Common Good Finance Corporation: creating the first ever common good bank
• Co-op Power: consumer-owned sustainable energy cooperative serving the Northeast, that is building sustainable energy resources in the region
• Greenfield Mercantile: planned community-owned department store in Greenfield
• Northeast Biodiesel Company: planned sustainable biodiesel plant that will be owned by Co-op Power
• River Valley Market: new consumer-owned food cooperative in Northampton
• The Little Red Hen's Wheat Patch Project: growing and processing the region's grain locally
• Nuestras Raíces: promotes economic, human, and community development in Holyoke
• Swift River Media Complex and Campus: regional film and television studio system and training institute in Turners Falls
• and others

Why here in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden County, Massachusetts?

The Pioneer Valley is a unique community. People here are working together in powerful ways to build our economy from the ground up. More community-based businesses are thriving and developing here than in most places around the country. Many community-owned businesses are springing up. By investing in these local enterprises, we will have more jobs, better jobs, and more secure access to healthy alternatives to the things we depend on most.

Risks

Yes, these businesses have important missions, well thought out business plans and tremendous community support. But that doesn't mean they will be successful. The money you put into a membership, equity investment, or loan will be AT RISK. If the business is not successful, you could lose the money you put in. Please do not invest more than you can afford to lose.

In these uncertain economic times, many of us feel that failing to develop a strong, locally-owned economy could leave all of us and our communities at great risk. Some believe that a local investment is more secure than an investment in some large corporation far away, where they don't care about you or your community.

In the end, it's up to you. What amount can you commit today to invest proudly in your community? (one-time, monthly, or quarterly) Join us! Fill out the Local Investor Form.

Questions? Contact:

William Spademan 413-628-3336 or
Lynn Benander 413-552-6446

or email info@investlocal.org