• NASE Overview
• Fostering Future Entrepreneurs
• FE Award and Scholarship
• Other NASE Activities

NASE Overview

• The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) represents hundreds of thousands of the smallest of small businesses--those headed by self-employed owners with five or fewer employees. It is the largest non-profit, non-partisan association of its kind in the United States. NASE was founded in 1981 by a group of small-business owners in search of the kinds of benefits and consolidated buying power that traditionally have only been available to large businesses.
  
• The primary goal of the association is to help the self-employed meet the challenges of making their businesses successful by:
  
  • Promoting the health and financial security of NASE members
    
  • Providing educational opportunities and significant discounts on business and personal services
    
  • Working to enact legislation that gives small businesses an equal footing with their larger corporate counterparts
    
  • Stimulating and encouraging ongoing independent grassroots businesses

Fostering Future Entrepreneurs

Since its founding, NASE has recognized the critical need for fostering entrepreneurship among American youth as the business leaders of tomorrow. With this in mind, providing young people with the resources they need to succeed has been a key priority for NASE. Through its scholarship programs, NASE seeks to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit among young adults while offering dependents of its membership -- who are eligible to receive the awards -- strong financial assistance not available through their parents’ employment. In this sense, the programs seek to level the playing field between the self-employed and their corporate counterparts when it comes to financial assistance for their children’s education.

Future Entrepreneur Award and Scholarship

The NASE “Future Entrepreneur” award and scholarship program is the nation’s only major scholarship program supporting the philosophy of entrepreneurship rather than a specific profession.  The scholarship prize of $24,000 is given to a young man or woman who demonstrates leadership and academic excellence, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit.  In addition to the grand scholarship prize, NASE awards 22 other young individuals with $4,000 scholarships.  Since the award program’s beginning, the organization has provided financial assistance of over one million dollars.

Successful Voice in Washington: With a growing Capitol Hill presence, NASE’s full-time advocacy staff focuses on key legislative issues that impact small businesses. Accomplishments in recent years include:

• Working with Congress to achieve a 100 percent health insurance deduction for the self-employed and Medical Savings Accounts
  
• Helping pass legislation that allows workers to keep their health insurance when they change or lose their job
  
• Aiding in the development and passing of sweeping reforms in the way government regulates small businesses
  
• Working to gain passage of a new law to simplify small business pension plans

In addition, NASE is aggressively pursuing legislation and reforms that would:

• Increase tax deductions for business meals and entertainment for small businesses
  
• Halt further Social Security payroll tax increases for the self-employed, and permit a portion of Social Security taxes to be allocated to personal retirement accounts that workers would own themselves
  
• Clarify independent contractor status for tax purposes, helping small business owners easily distinguish between contractors and employees.