Grameen Foundation USA

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Overview

Grameen Foundation provides support to microfinance programs that enable the poor, mostly women, lift themselves out of poverty and make better lives for themselves and their families. This support includes funding, technology, technical assistance, training, and information services to a network of 52 local microfinance institutions in 22 countries. Our work is focused in four innovative areas: supporting MFIs, harnessing the power of technology, connecting microfinance institutions with capital markets, and expanding microfinance industry knowledge.

Mission

To empower the world's poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty through access to financial resources and information. With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly women, start self-sustaining businesses to permanently escape poverty.

Program

Ranging in size from just a few hundred clients to hundreds of thousands, our partner microfinance institutions are the bedrock of our outreach to the poor. Our success is intricately tied to their impact and performance. To help them operate more efficiently and be more effective, we provide each partner with extensive microfinance program support and services that are tailored to meet their needs.
Drawing on the skills and expertise of our in-house professionals and a pool of consultants, we work with individual MFIs to develop a comprehensive technical services package, including: financing strategies that foster smart growth; training and capacity-building programs that help to expand and strengthen day-to-day operations; outreach initiatives that increase their visibility both in local and international communities. To be more effective, MFIs must also know how their products and services can verifiably help their clients to escape poverty. Grameen Foundation is helping them measure their impact and social performance with its Progress Out of Poverty Index (PPI). The PPI is a measurement tool that helps our MFIs scientifically determine their clients’ needs, which programs work best, how quickly their clients leave poverty, and what helps them to advance out of poverty faster.

Impact

By providing tiny loans of less than $200 to poor individuals, usually women, our MFI partner clients establish or expand a small, self-sustaining businesses. These entrepreneurial projects provide our clients with a steady income and ultimately helps them escape poverty. Using this microfinance model, our MFI network reaches over 2.2million poor clients worldwide, and has an estimated extended impact of 5.5million people. As a testimony to our achievements in the microfinance field, we are honored to be the recipient of several awards, including the Fast Company Social Capitalist Award, “A�? from American Institute of Philanthropy, and the Pro-Poor Innovation Award.

Countries

Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Uganda, United States, Yemen

States

New York, Texas

Contact

50 F Street NW
8th Floor
WASHINGTON, DC 20001-1530
Phone: (202) 628-3560
www.grameenfoundation.org
EIN: 73-1502797


Community

Opportunity

Tsunami recovery

Support MFI programs

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $4,500.00

Your gift helps us strengthen local programs, such as those in Indonesia. To help survivors there rebuild their lives after the tsunami, Grameen Foundation has provided support and funding to two local microfinance institutions. The MFIs have grown and are currently helping 6,700 families regain hope for their futures. GF has also worked with the local government and other non-profit organizations to make sure our...


Develop A Leader

Strengthen MFI leaders

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $3,000.00

Your gift of $3,000 helps strengthen microfinance leaders so they can continue as innovators for the world’s poorest. Your gift size supports senior executives like Francisco Lopez, Executive Director of the microfinance institution Fundación Adelante in Honduras. He attended a two-week course organized by INCAE, one of the top business schools in Latin America. From this short course, he learned about new challenges in the...


MFI exposure trip

Foster field learning

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $2,500.00

Lina, from the Philippines, was once a factory worker who got laid off in the wake of an earthquake that destroyed her workplace. Lina then started her own sweater manufacturing business with a loan of PhP 5,000 (USD $117) from GF partner TSPI, and she currently employs 45 workers who produce dozens of quality knit garments each week. Lina is now financially secure and is...


Help reach the poor

PPI training for MFIs

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $2,000.00

Help our partners ensure they are reaching the poorest of the poor and understand how fast families are moving out of poverty. Your gift supports training on Grameen Foundation’s breakthrough benchmarking tool, the Poverty out of Progress Index (PPI). With the PPI, a microfinance institution uses indicators of poverty to measure their clients’ likely poverty levels so they can be sure they’re helping the poorest...


Expand a business

Take out a second loan

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $360.00

When Maritza was just 19, a woman in her village started an argument with her and threw a poisonous liquid in her eyes, rendering her incurably blind. She refused to treat her blindness as a weakness, and remained determined to use her skills to earn a living. She took out a loan of 5,031 pesos (US $150) from Esperanza, a Grameen Foundation partner, and began...


Teach A Child

5 years of school

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $1,200.00

Your gift will allow the Grameen Foundation Educational Scholarship Program to cover the public school fees for five years of a borrower's child. Microfinance is one of the most powerful solutions to poverty in existence today. It attacks poverty at its roots and allows a poor person to gain a foothold against day-to-day impoverishment. Microfinance – small loans complemented by savings, insurance and other services...


Expand A Business

Loan for one woman

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $225.00

With $225, a woman can start a bakery in India and support her family as a widow. Mary, a 45 year-old widow, was only educated up until primary school. When she lost her husband, she was left with few options to earn a living. Working as a laborer in a bakery unit, she could hardly make ends meet. However, Mary enjoyed the baking process and...


Launch A Business

Paper mache materials

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $98.00

With $98, a woman can start a paper maché business and find the strength to recover from a personal tragedy. Merlyn Francisco was always an industrious woman, becoming a successful fish vendor early in her marriage, but it wasn’t until her husband was diagnosed with cancer that she faced severe financial difficulties. He needed chemotherapy and after a prolonged battle with his disease, he passed...


Start a Fruit Stand

Microfinance a woman's fruit stand

Grameen Foundation USA

Regular price $95.00

Your gift will provide a loan for one woman to start a fruit stand at her local market, giving her a way to break through poverty, gain self-confidence and expand job opportunities in her community. Microfinance is one of the most powerful solutions to poverty in existence today. It attacks poverty at its roots and allows a poor person to gain a foothold against day-to-day...