GMEN is an industry association of organizations and individuals who provide support for the development of microenterprises in Georgia. As a State Microenterprise Association (SMA), GMEN provides programming in the five SMA areas of focus:
Regranting
GMEN has been managing the regranting of funds to microenterprise organizations in Georgia for nine years. These grants have ranged from $1-40,000 one-time grants or stipends for general operating budgets of new microenterprise organizations, work in a specific programming areas or training to specific target groups.
Thus far 100 grants have been awarded totaling $1,500,000. This support facilitated the start-up of over 750 new businesses in Georgia.
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Capacity building
GMEN is committed to documenting outcomes of microenterprise organizations and of GMEN as an organization. GMEN has measured outcomes in three ways:
- Annual membership survey
- Monthly and quarterly reports to funders
- Annual microtest performance report
Starting in 2006 GMEN became a MicroTest Outcomes Tracking Intermediary. Ten GMEN member organizations joined two existing GMEN member organizations in becoming Microtest sites.
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Data collection
GMEN is committed to documenting outcomes of microenterprise organizations and of GMEN as an organization. GMEN has measured outcomes in four ways:
- Annual membership survey
- Grantee evaluation model developed by Wellsys corporation for evaluating organizations receiving grants from GMEN
- Monthly and quarterly reports to funders
- Bimonthly operational reports
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Loan fund management
GMEN has not pursued establishing a centralized loan fund to provide micro loans to micro entrepreneurs across the state, as done by some state microenterprise associations (SMAs). These SMAs provide either backoffice support to their member micro loan funds, similar to the ACCION model or they provide direct loan making services in the gap areas.
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Advocacy
GMEN’s advocacy efforts have focused on three fronts: Issue Papers, Educational Sessions and Annual Awards.
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