Crowdfunders Press the SEC: What Is Taking So Long? Various members of the crowdfunding community are expected meet in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to press lawmakers and the SEC to implement the JOBS Act.
By Catherine Clifford •
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The crowdfunding community is going to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to bang on some doors. Its goal is to generate political impetus to persuade the Securities and Exchange Commission to write and finalize the rules necessary to implement the JOBS Act.
Tuesday, a range of crowdfunding backers, from investors to entrepreneurs who have launched crowdfunding sites to small-business advocates and venture-capital leaders, will descend on Washington and move around caravan-style to meet with representatives at the National Press Club, on Capitol Hill, the White House and the SEC.
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The day's call to action is co-hosted by the small-business advocacy organization Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council and the not-for-profit crowdfunding organization Crowdfunding Professional Association. "The community is ready, all of the checks and balances are in place, and the small businesses desperately need help," says Joy Schoffler, executive committee chair at the Crowdfunding Professional Association.
Related: Cred, Connections, Cash -- The Workings of a Business Accelerator
The JOBS (an acronym for Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act was passed in April and is a group of six pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the ability of small businesses to access capital and generate jobs. Perhaps the most popular provision was that which would allow business owners to sell equity in their company to anyone with the cash and the interest through crowdfunding, not just accredited investors.
The implementation of these JOBS Act depends on the SEC to write rules for them, but from the beginning, the government agency claimed it was stretched too thin and the legislation had too many complex implications for it to even meet its first deadline back in the summer. The crowdfunding rules were supposed to be done by the start of 2013, and now a month and a half later, the community has had enough of being patient.
Related: 3 Rules for Successful Crowdfunding
Has your business been hamstrung by the SEC's delay in writing the rules for the JOBS Act? Leave a note below and let us know.
