Group attempts to aid city economic climate

Over the past two years, the city of New Brunswick has seen a myriad of development projects, from the Gateway Center to the Pinnacle Project. While the construction projects are bringing a visible change to the face of the city, two University students are working to change things behind the scenes.
In Sept. of 2007, Rutgers College senior Joe Shure and School of Engineering junior Rohan Mathew noticed a poverty gap in the city and decided to do something about it. One year later, the two have established The Intersect Fund, a micro lending organization dedicated to helping small business owners in the Hub City.
Yesterday, the group received their first grant of $1,000 from Magyar Bank to help realize their plan. The first donation is part of an aggressive fundraising campaign by Intersect, Shure said.
“For me [the choice to give the grant] was an easy sell,” said Jay E. Castillo, president of Magyar Bank Charitable Foundation.
Castillo said he worked for a long time with the Union County Economic Development Corporation, which had a similar format to the Intersect Fund.
The MBCF donates to many local organizations, from soup kitchens to the Ronald McDonald house said Judy Braverman, the group’s community relations specialist.
“We’re really grateful to [Magyar] and their grant,” Mathew said. “They really dipped their toe in the water for us when no one had given us money yet, and it’s opened the door to several other lenders.”
The fund makes small loans of up to $2,500 that are paid back with 15 percent interest. The loans are distributed in a peer lending system, Mathew said, where members of small groups hold one another on repayment. If one member of the group does not repay the loan, no other members will be eligible to reapply for more money.
The basis for the plan was based on a Nobel Prize winning system developed in Bangladesh, Mathew said, but he said that Intersect used methods that were better suited to the New Brunswick population.
“One of the big things we realized is that we shouldn’t duplicate services that already exist, like local charities,” Mathew said. “We have a good sense of the [local] landscape. We want to focus on how we can help as many people as possible with providing services that don’t currently exist.”
A hallmark of Intersect is providing business and job training to their lenders, Shure said.
“These people are the backbone of the development projects, but many of them still are having trouble making ends meet,” Mathew said. “In addition to having jobs that pay only $5 an hour, they also have second small jobs to try and put food on the table, like caring for children, selling food on the street or other things.”
Mathew said the main idea is to create a climate of economic sustainability.
“If you just go out and give someone a loan, that’s almost irresponsible,” he said. “They don’t know whether to spend it on inventory, hiring more people or what. We’re providing business education to go along with their money.”
Currently, the group has about 12 student members on board helping them with the fund, Shure said.
The same business training given to the fund’s clients is also given to its members, he said.
Currently, there are at least 20 local residents interested in the program, the two said.
“More people have expressed interest in the business education aspect of the program than the loans,” Mathew said. “Some people have asked us if there are ways to take business classes at Rutgers to help educate them.”
College students have a great deal of resources, Shure said, and the group is just trying to leverage the resources that are available to them.
“This is a great opportunity to work for an independent non-profit business where [students] can work with real money,” he said.
The two encouraged anyone interested to contact the fund by visiting their new Web site, www.intersectfund.org.
“It’s especially rewarding because you’re not just giving someone a charitable gift, you’re putting them on the path to economic sustainability,” Mathew said.

— Brendan McInerney
contributed to this story

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