On Tuesday March 20th the Senate will take up the House-approved JOBS Act. The JOBS Act includes the majority of the Crowdfunding framework that we originally brought to DC and Representative McHenry used as the basis for HR2930. Several components of the framework were also included in the Senate version and many of our compromise ideas are the ones used in the bipartisan Merkley/Bennet/Brown/Landrieu compromise that was offered as an amendment to the Crowdfunding portion of the House-approved JOBS Act.
When the Senate takes up the bill on Tuesday it is important that if you support Crowdfunding in any shape or form you do the following:
- Call your Senators and tell them “I support the JOBS Act and Senator _______ should vote in favor of it.â€
- Rally your supporter, followers, friends and family to do the same thing. Tweet, Facebook post, Linkedin update, etc about this! The opponents to Crowdfunding are outnumbering proponents in calls to the Senate. If Crowdfunding fails here, it dies and history proves that its chances of being resurrected again are near zero. (Use the tweet button at the bottom of this post at minimum to spread the word).
- If you are a Crowdfund Investing intermediary (or wish to be), it is critical that you sign up to be part of the Crowdfunding Self Regulatory Organization (CSRO). Either the Crowdfunding industry oversees itself or FINRA/NASAA will and as you can see by their choice wording in the media, they have no interest in seeing Crowdfunding flourish. Since we originally brought the idea for Crowdfund Investing to Washington, DC in January, 2011 with our framework, we have stayed on policy during this process. Now, we’ve been asked to head up the formation of the Self-Regulating Organization for Crowdfund Investing. We have formed an initial board of industry experts and core principals and will be meeting to create our charter, regulatory structure and industry oversight process.  This new SRO will create strong, enforceable standards and assist Crowdfunding platforms in educating and protecting investors who choose to invest small portions of their savings in Crowdfunding. The Crowdfunding industry needs its own organization for oversight and regulation. As a new industry, we understand how different CFI is from other financial products and are best positioned to enable the industry to grow, while creating strong investor protections.
It is CRITICAL THAT THE SENATE VOTE IN FAVOR OF THE PRESIDENT, JOBS AND CROWDFUNDING!  If the Senate votes against the JOBS Act, Crowdfunding will probably never see the light of day! It is important that if you support Crowdfunding you have your voice heard by Tuesday!
