By: Joyce Klein, “Funding U.S. Microenterprise: Why Now?” panelist

Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Microenterprise Funders Group are teaming up to provide a special learning opportunity for funders at Microfinance USA 2010.  “Funding U.S. Microenterprise: Why Now?” will be a donors-only session for current and potential U.S. microenterprise funders to discuss the why and the how of funding microenterprise in the U.S.

At the session, we’ll welcome funders of all shapes and sizes: foundations, corporations and individuals; public and private; grantmakers and investors.  You’ll get a first look at just-released data findings on the size and scope of the microenterprise field in the U.S.. We’ll also discuss how microenterprise connects to some of the key challenges that our nation currently faces, such as job creation and meeting the needs of the underbanked.  My co-panelists—Amanda Feinstein of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and Ash McNeely of the Sand Hill Foundation— will share their experiences in funding microenterprise development in the Bay Area.

Although we’ll be making formal presentations, the session will provide ample opportunities for questions and discussion.  Questions we may discuss include:

• How is the current economic climate affecting microentrepreneurs and microfinance programs?
• How are funders evaluating or assessing which microenterprise programs to invest in?
• What is the role of private funders and investors at a time when there are significant Federal resources available through the Recovery Act?

We hope to provide an opportunity for funders to learn together and from each other, and to link participants to resources that can inform and support their grants and investments. We’ve also asked the conference organizers to reserve tables at the network luncheon just after our session, so that we can continue our conversation informally over lunch.

If you are a donor, funder, investor who is funding or interested in microenterprise in the U.S. – please come and join the conversation at “Funding Microenterprise in the U.S.:  Why Now?”

The Microenterprise Funders Group is an informal affinity group of donors who are interested in or are currently funding microenterprise development in the U.S.  Membership is free to any donor interested in learning more about the field.  The Funders Group is staffed by the FIELD program of The Aspen Institute.   FIELD also publishes Funder Guides, brief publications that discuss key important or emerging issues in the field, including:

• Microenterprise programs and credit building
• A  federal policy agenda for microenterprise
• Microenterprise and asset development

Joyce Klein is a senior consultant to the FIELD program of the Aspen Institute.  She’s been working in the U.S. microenterprise field for 20 years, focusing on research, policy, grantmaking and identification of best practices.