Starbucks pushes jobs programme

Starbucks Corp hopes customers will be willing to pay at least US$5 more when they stop in for their morning cup of Joe.

Starting November 1, Starbucks will begin collecting donations of US$5 or more from customers to stimulate American job growth through its 'Jobs for USA' programme.

The Seattle-based coffee chain is collaborating with the Opportunity Finance Network, a non-profit organisation that works with nearly 200 community development financial institutions to provide loans to small businesses and community groups.

Starbucks says 100 per cent of the donations will go toward loans for firms and organisations that can add jobs or stem job losses.

Starbucks, which pioneered how Americans drink coffee, declined to estimate how much money it plans to raise, but millions of people visit its nearly 7,000 company-owned US stores each day. Customers who give will get a red, white and blue wristband that says 'Indivisible'.

"This is about using Starbuck's scale for good," said CEO Howard Schultz.

To address economic woes

The programme is the latest effort by Schultz to address the nation's economic woes.

In August, he sent more than 200,000 Starbucks employees a memo urging them to do what they can to help business thrive. Then, he asked fellow CEOs to stop contributing to political campaigns until the nation's leaders reached a long-term economic solution.

After that, he hosted a national telephone forum, bought full-page ads in two major newspapers and started a website, Upwardspiral2011.org.

Schultz said he feels personal responsibility to do something to stimulate the US economy. Starbucks is hiring about 200 people a day in the US as part of its efforts to remodel thousands of stores and add about 200 more locations in the next year. But Schultz said he wanted to do more.

Starbucks is covering the operational costs to get loans out through the programme, which will run indefinitely.

Its charitable arm, The Starbucks Foundation, is giving US$5 million to get the programme started, with the hope that funds will be invested in communities within a month of a donation being made.

Opportunity Finance Network works with 180 financial institutions - banks, credit unions, loan funds and venture capital funds - that give loans in low-income communities that don't have easy access to credit.

The organisation, created 27 years ago, has invested US$23.2 billion and generated nearly 300,000 jobs through 2009.

Loans through the network have supported everything from charter schools to grocery stores nationwide.

The organisation found that, even during the recession, more than 98 per cent of the money loaned out has been repaid, which is in line with traditional lenders.

Through the programme, businesses will apply to financial institutions, which along with the Opportunity Finance Network, will assess their potential for adding jobs. Preference will be given to applicants who can add jobs within six months. An outside organisation will audit the programme within a year.

"We want to match up every person who has US$5 to share with every person who can't spare US$5," said Mark Pinsky, CEO of Opportunity Finance Network.