Combining the power of microfinance and technology to defeat global poverty.
This comprehensive guide was developed by Grameen Foundation and Grameen Trust to provide microfinance institutions seeking to learn from the Grameen Bank approach with the information they need to create or expand programs to provide financial services to the poor.
Social business, the concept of doing business to address a social problem, is designed to complement capitalism while addressing humanity’s critical issues, especially poverty.
In his new book, “Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs,” Professor Muhammad Yunus explains how to implement and maintain this innovative business model for maximum impact.
Alex Counts' journey into microfinance began more than twenty years ago when as a young college student he wrote to Muhammad Yunus asking to join his fascinating work at Grameen Bank. In his new book, Small Loans, Big Dreams, Counts, president and CEO of Grameen Foundation, tells the story of microfinance through the eyes of both the borrowers and the leaders of microfinance in a compelling new book.
Purchase Small Loans, Big Dreams here.
For over 30 years, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been successfully serving some of the poor and poorest people around the world, primarily with credit products. Generally however, MFIs grapple to successfully add savings services to their portfolio of financial products. Whether offering savings as a way to provide additional valued financial services to clients or to have a reliable source of funding, or both, MFIs must learn to bring together people and technology and build the capacity and infrastructure to grow this business.
This article from our Solutions for the Poorest team explores how market research, product design and testing, marketing, technology, alternative delivery channels, and a microfinance institution’s ability to transform from a credit-led institution to a market-led institution can assist it in reaching poor savers with products that are accessible, affordable, and secure.
© Practical Action Publishing, 2011. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Enterprise Development and Microfinance, volume 22, issue 2, pages 118-133, June 2011, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2011.015.
For over 30 years, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been successfully serving some of the poor and poorest people around the world, primarily with credit products. Generally however, MFIs grapple to successfully add savings services to their portfolio of financial products. Whether offering savings as a way to provide additional valued financial services to clients or to have a reliable source of funding, or both, MFIs must learn to bring together people and technology and build the capacity and infrastructure to grow this business.
This article by Debbie Dean of our Solutions for the Poorest team explores how market research, product design and testing, marketing, technology, alternative delivery channels, and a microfinance institution’s ability to transform from a credit-led institution to a market-led institution can assist it in reaching poor savers with products that are accessible, affordable, and secure.
© Practical Action Publishing, 2011. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Enterprise Development and Microfinance, volume 22, issue 2, pages 118-133, June 2011, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2011.015.
The capability of their staff is perhaps the single most important resource microfinance institutions (MFIs) have for meeting the challenges of reaching more people, while navigating financial, regulatory, political, competition and other issues. veis the capability of their people. Maximizing staff strengths depends not only on hiring right and providing appropriate learning and development opportunities; it requires adoption of strategically focused human capital management practices.
This paper from our Human Capital Center discusses how MFIs can maximize their internal talent to support their strategic objectives. It was first presented at the Global Micocredit Summit 2011 in Valladolid, Spain.
This report examines if and how mobile phones can improve financial literacy amongst the poor. It details the findings from our pilot performed in Uganda from March through December 2010.
Grameen Foundation’s holistic approach to microsavings provides the framework and tools to develop and offer convenient, accessible, and secure poverty-focused savings programs while building sound financial, organizational, and operational practices that help transform microfinance institutions (MFIs) from credit-led to demand-driven institutions. One important component of the holistic approach is the management of process and systems changes and the impact they have on the organization and its people.
Effective data analytics is essential for meeting the bottom line, and is even more critical when you are trying to meet a double bottom line. This case study examines how PT Ruma – a social enterprise based in Indonesia – is using social and business data to change its business practices. To ensure that it is meeting its double-bottom-line mission, Ruma tracks changes in its entrepreneurs’ economic well-being using Grameen Foundation's Progress out of Poverty Index® and links this data to its own financial health.
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People-related issues have consistently ranked among the top ten industry challenges in the Microfinance Banana Skins report. Peg Ross and Stephanie Denzer of Grameen Foundation's Human Capital Center analyze the concerns raised in the 2011 report, including governance, management, staffing and the overall institutional strength of microfinance institutions.
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Excerpt: This is not volunteerism for the sake of volunteerism, but rather a new business model for solving some of the real problems impeding the scale, sustainability, and impact of microfinance and T4D initiatives. A greater and more strategic use of volunteers can help the field to realize, more rapidly, strategic and operational improvements.
Kathleen Odell
In Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look, Odell examines studies which have demonstrated that microfinance helps poor people better cope with financial shocks that often upend their lives. It also addresses the difficulties in isolating microfinance’s impact from the myriad forces at play in poor people’s lives.
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