Posts Tagged ‘microenterprise’

Social Enterprise Alliance’s 12th Annual Summit, Oct 30th

posted: 2011-10-17 @ 7:34 am EDT

Check out this awesome conference coming up in a couple of weeks!

Get your questions answered at the Social Enterprise Alliance’s 12th Annual Summit, October 30 to November 2, at the downtown Chicago Magnificent Mile Marriott … THE one stop place where you can get everything you always wanted to know about social enterprise.

GO TO THE SUMMIT FOR FREE!: You can win a full Summit registration plus a room at the Marriott.  Click here <https://www.se-alliance.org/newsletter-signup>  to learn more.

The Summit offers expert advice, quality connections, and investor strategies.  Connect with over 750 social entrepreneurs, partners, and field leaders to enhance your human and financial capital, strengthen your supply chain, and help you and your organization scale to new heights.

Our speakers include:

  • Mayor Rahm Emanuel, City of Chicago (invited)
  • Bill Drayton, Ashoka
  • Darell Hammond, KaBOOM!
  • Carla Javits, REDF
  • Paul Carttar, Social Innovation Fund
  • Priya Haji, World of Good and Saveup.com
  • Jim Gibbons, Goodwill Industries International
  • Leila Janah, Samasource
  • Simon Mainwaring, We First
  • Rey Ramsey, TechNet
  • Julius Walls, Formerly of Greyston Bakery and now with Greater Centennial A.M.E. Zion Church
  • David Carleton, FareStart and Catalyst Kitchens
  • Gerald Chertavian, Year Up!
  • Felix Brandon Lloyd, MoneyIsland/BancVue
  • Judy Wicks, White Dog Café and BALLE

Summit 2011 is jam packed with 35% more programming than last year, and Summit registration includes all meals from breakfast Monday morning, October 31, through our closing keynote luncheon on Wednesday, November 2.  For more information on the schedule, speakers, and reasons to join THE national gathering of social enterprise, please click here <https://www.se-alliance.org/annual-summit>  to learn more.  For a Summit schedule, please click here <https://www.se-alliance.org/summit-schedule> .

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Impact investing—How can We Get More of It for U.S. Microenterprise?

posted: 2011-05-20 @ 9:11 am EDT

By: Tamra Thetford

What is impact investing anyways? Impact investors are seemingly a new hybrid between philanthropy and venture capital, those actively seeking investment opportunities in varying social sectors. As the NY Times aptly put it—impact investing is like “a private equity fund for social change.” And we’ve already seen some of this activity in the international microfinance realm.

How to get some of these dollars into the US microenterprise industry? D-A-T-A. Yes, data is what any investor looks at to evaluate where to put their investment dollars. The issue that FIELD and other organizations have begun to tackle is getting transparent and standardized data out there for new investors to gain awareness of the field. That’s one reason we’re close to launching microTracker.org, a new site that will allow both practitioners and potential investors/donors to use data to their advantage—for practitioners, to help them compare their performance to others in the field, and hopefully demonstrate their distinguishing characteristics, and for investors to understand the diversity of the field, locate opportunities, and understand the ROI of investment in the industry. Again, we’re building off the international experience (yet adding our own US twist). Sites like the MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange) have helped move many institutions to support data transparency and as a result attracted much more investment in microfinance internationally.  So has GIIN (…), with whom we’ve cooperated to increase consistency of data measurement across the international and domestic fields.

We’ve made the case in several publications that as U.S. organizations seek to take the next leap in their development, they have been challenged to access the substantial capital investment they need. To capture the funds for that leap, we need to demonstrate to more funders and investors that there are opportunities worthy of consideration. And this will require sharing more data, and ensuring that we are on the same page in terms of the data we report. We hope that microTracker.org becomes the vehicle to help programs do just that.

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Choices, Choices, Choices

posted: 2010-05-14 @ 9:30 am EDT

By Dylan Higgins

As the Microfinance USA conference draws nearer and with an abundance of tantalizing sessions, I thought it may be helpful to map out an attendance strategy. Here are my Day 1 and Day 2 recommendations.    

Day 1:

  • 1:15 Session – Scaling Global Microfinance – While much progress has been made in scaling this field, we still have much work to do.  I’m interested in learning what has worked and what hasn’t from these panelists.
                        
  • 2:45 Session – Leveraging Partnerships To Reach Millions – A nice follow-up to the 1:15 session.  With more and more players entering this field, it is becoming imperative that we learn how to collaborate on our common goals.
                     
  • 4:15 Session – What is a Fair Price to Pay for Good Credit? – The recent New York Times article on interest rates for microfinance loans will undoubtedly make this one of the most popular sessions in the conference.  If you want to come prepared, I would recommend reading Chapter 5 of Portfolios of the Poor – The Price of Money. 

Day 2:

  • 9:45 Session – Is Savings Even More Important Than Credit?  As the CEO of SaveTogether, you can guess how I would answer this question and why I’m the most excited about this session.
                           
  • 11:00 Session – Policy Efforts  to Promote Responsible and Appropriate Financial Products  – Leveraging broad public support through public partnerships and policy advocacy is the most under-appreciated and untapped step to truly scaling this work.
                             
  • 2:30 Session – US Innovations: Serving the Unbanked – Since I’ll be missing the 11:00 session on innovations, I’m glad I’ll be able to attend this one to learn about organizations who like to push the envelope. 

I look forward to meeting many of you next week!   Feel free to contact me on twitter: @savetogether

                                 
Dylan Higgins is the Founder and CEO of SaveTogether.org and the Vice-Chair of SeaMo. SaveTogether operates a website that offers you an opportunity to participate in savings-focused microfinance and SeaMo is an organization dedicated to connecting the microfinance community through events, conferences, and an online platform.

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Continuing My Microfinance Education

posted: 2010-05-13 @ 11:06 am EDT

By Delaine Zody

For 21 years I have worked in an inner city school in the middle of California’s Central Valley. My students come from very poor neighborhoods with little chance to see what is beyond their six blocks. 

Seeing a need I helped build a program at my school, called the Marketing Academy. Through the program we showed students how to start their own business, and through guest speakers and field trips, opened them up to a world of possibilities.  Many of these students have gone on to have successful careers and started their own businesses. 

Seeing this success made me want to continue to work with organizations that can help others be successful. So as I planned my third career, I took into account how microfinance was doing just that and where I might fit.  My research started with reading Muhammad Yunus’s book, “Banker to the Poor” and then lead to an interest in Microfinance USA conferences

This year, when I received the notice for Microfinance USA 2010 and learned that it would be in San Francisco, I was doubly excited.  Not only would I get to learn more about this method of helping people get out of poverty through entrepreneurship, but I could do it in my favorite city, and new hometown, San Francisco. 

I signed up immediately and was even able to get registered for the Micro-entrepreneur Tour. This session is all about visiting microfinance borrowers at their places of business throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. I am really excited to learn about what real entrepreneurs are doing and how microfinance has helped them.

Another session that I am excited to attend is Student-Led Microfinance Clubs.  With my background in teaching and the examples I have read of two schools where teachers have had students invest in microfinance organizations such as Kiva. I am looking forward to hearing what other students are doing to start microfinance clubs on campus. 

The Opening Session: Conversation with Maria Shriver will be a great way to start the conference and hear the First Lady of California’s take on the growth of microfinance and how it will help California. Just having Maria Shriver attend lends an air of excitement to the two-day event. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

 

Delaine Zody is currently a teacher in an inner city school where she has collaborated on two smaller learning communities within the business department.  She teaches entrepreneurship and is a microfinance enthusiast. Blogging athttp://dkzody.wordpress.com/

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Banking on the Poor at Microfinance USA 2010

posted: 2010-05-12 @ 9:30 am EDT
By Daniel Kreps
                      
This year the Microfinance USA conference will be taking place in my home town of San Francisco. I am very excited to be attending and blogging on several sessions at the conference, and I see this as a great opportunity to continue my research on how basic financial products can be adapted for use by low income entrepreneurs.
                              
Having worked most of my career in the banking industry, I am particularly interested in the session focused on “Serving the Unbanked.” There have been a number of recent articles in the press and blogosphere, lamenting the high cost of micro-credit and criticizing large financial institutions who appear to be reaping inordinate profits from their lending to low income clients. This is certain to be a hot topic at the conference and, as an experienced banker and volunteer with Grameen Foundation’s Bankers Without Borders, it is a key issue that interests me.
               
Other sessions of interest include Microloan Management Services which will be covering the provision of portfolio management services for other MFI’s by ACCION Texas, as well as the Kiva Lender-Borrower Meet-UP.
                
Having worked as a banker in Asia I started learning about microfinance when I became a Kiva lender.  Kiva has recently taken some criticism for extending its activities into the U.S market, however I think it is great to have Kiva’s network of lenders available to American low income entrepreneurs.
                        
I anticipate the conference will provide much material for my blog.  If you are able to make it to the conference let’s meet up; if not, follow my posts here and at Banking on the Poor.
      
            
Daniel Kreps is an experienced international banker, volunteer with Bankers Without Borders and blogger who is focused on creating access to financial services for the poor.

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Special Learning Opportunity for Funders at Microfinance USA 2010

posted: 2010-05-07 @ 9:40 am EDT

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.

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