Microfinance has become the poster child for troubling growth and questionable nonprofit/for-profit cross-overs. Is it the rapid growth or too much emphasis on investor returns or not enough government regulation that has led to suicides by borrowers and a request for Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus, founder of the movement, to step down from Grameen Bank.

Read more
Comments (2)

Impact Investors: A New Source of Funding for Social Entrepreneurs

by Geri Stengel on Dec 9, 2009 - 12:41pm

Forecast / Prediction impact investing microfinance Nonprofit Small Business Social Capital social enterprise social entrepreneur

Financial Ingenuity

Ingenious financial solutions to the world's social and environmental challenges are becoming a global force for change.

The microfinance movement started in the '70s in Bangladesh. By 2007, the microfinance industry provided $15 billion in microloans to 106 million of the world’s poorest families, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign. The campaign was to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005. That goal was very nearly reached and in November of 2006 the Campaign was extended to 2015 with two new goals: reach 175 million of the world's poorest people and ensure that 100 million families rise above earning $1 a day.

Read more
Comments (2)