Kinship Lending welcomes 17 new Navajo and Hopi borrowers

Tuba City, Navajo Nation (AZ) - Change Labs, a Native-led nonprofit organization on the Navajo Nation, has welcomed 17 new Native American borrowers into its Kinship Lending program for business owners and nonprofit leaders using USDA grant funds.

Kinship Lending is a unique “relationship-based” lending program designed to help Native American business owners operating on Native land leapfrog the obstacles to access capital. Because the majority entrepreneurs on Native land cannot own the land their home is built on, the program doesn’t rely on assets or credit scores to evaluate borrowers.

The program also gives borrowers an opportunity they can’t get anywhere else, by pairing them with a dedicated business coach to mentor and guide them in the first twelve months of the program. This one-on-one experience is important to help new business owners create healthy habits for their business and for themselves.

There are other perks to the program. Borrowers are invited to attend six financial training sessions covering topics ranging from personal finance, credit building, to budget building. If a borrower attends all the sessions, a percentage of their loan forgiven, according to Kristine Laughter, Director of Kinship Lending.

Laughter said that one of the new borrowers has taken every opportunity presented so far and she’s run with it.

Layncon Hubbard, a baker, owns Sweet Gal Creations, which specializes in custom cakes. And while the sweet treats may be the main business priority, Hubbard also dabbles in personalized items such as mugs, t-shirts and printed art on wood.

Hubbard’s day job is in education but in the evening it’s all about the cakes. She is especially busy during the holidays and special events such as graduation. Some nights, after her full time job, Hubbard will work another eight hours to get cake orders done.

“She has been very open to all the coaching,” Laughter said. “She’s been able to pick up some pointers from our classes and incorporates that into creating her own family budget.”

The Kinship Lending financial training also focuses on bookkeeping, a capacity not all borrowers currently have, Laughter said. “It’s important for Kinship Lending to teach participants how to successfully set up their bookkeeping system so they can keep up with their accounting,” she says.

This practice is something Hubbard decided to take on for her business and she can easily keep up with the expenses and revenue of her business through an app. For example, when Hubbard is asked about her revenue for the last three months, she doesn’t have to guesstimate because she can now pull up the exact number.

Similarly, Hubbard has to drive an hour one way to get her baking supplies and then there is the drive back home. That’s two extra hours that Hubbard puts into her business that isn’t directly baking. This is time and mileage that Laughter’s been teaching her to account for.

Laughter said they also have to look at costs of gas, eggs, milk, and everything else that goes into running Hubbard’s business and how that impacts the prices of her cakes.

The training through Kinship Lending is all about the full picture, Laughter said, adding that Hubbard’s business is only one example of the many businesses and owners they help. The new cohort of Kinship Lending borrowers is made of Navajo and Hopi silversmiths, jewelers, a photographer, catering companies, t-shirt printing companies and hide tanning to name a few.

The success stories and skills are what coaches hope borrowers leave Kinship Lending with, and the knowledge that as local business owners and service providers, they are building a healthy economic future in Native communities.