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> Posted by Kelley Mesa
The Campaign for Client Protection is excited to announce the beta release of two new assessment tools for microfinance institutions. The goal for each is to help MFI staff gain a better understanding of how well their organizations are implementing client protection practices as well as identify areas needing improvement.
To date the Campaign has received nearly 600 endorsements from MFIs, donors, investors, networks, associations, and individuals. If you haven’t endorsed, click here to learn more about the Campaign. |
> Posted by Anita Gardeva
We invite you to become a fan of the Center for Financial Inclusion on Facebook. Follow which blogs other fans are reading, join a discussion group, or browse through photos from Mali and Uganda.
To add the Center for Financial Inclusion page to your profile, just search “Center for Financial Inclusion” in Facebook’s search menu and you will find us.
Because the Center’s Facebook page is still new, we seek your feedback on how you would like to interact with us over Facebook and what we can do to make this page informative and exciting for you.
To go to the Center’s Facebook page now, click here.
> Posted by Anita Gardeva
María Otero - Designate, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs in the State Department.
ACCION International’s former CEO, María Otero, will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a hearing regarding her nomination to the position of Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs at the State Department.
The hearing will be broadcast live at the following website: http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090625a.html. At the top of the page, click on the blue title “Nominations” to automatically open media player window that will stream the webcast.
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
Center Managing Director Elisabeth Rhyne’s newest book is out on bookshelves today.
Microfinance for Bankers and Investors demonstrates that providing financial services to the poor is a viable business prospect that allows investors to be socially AND financially responsible. It provides readers with a road map showing where and how businesses can invest in greater financial inclusion, guided by the stories of companies already leading the way.
Here’s what the book jacket has to say…
What promies did Sequoia Capital recognize in SKS microfinance that it had also seen in Apple, Oracle, and Google? Why would Vodafone help distribute money via cell phones for millions of Kenyans? How did a Mexican retailer create a financial-services empire, Bank Azteca, that would serve eight million borrowers in five years? Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
microLINKS caught up with Client Protection Campaign Director Robin Ratcliffe at the recent MFC Conference of Microfinance Institutions in Belgrade. See the short interviews on the Campaign and overindebtedness here and here.
> Posted by Sean Foote
Sean Foote
“What’s the difference between a for-profit and a non-profit?” I ask my class at UC Berkeley every year. The first answer is almost always “Non-profits are well-intended, for-profits are not.”
False.
The difference between a non-profit and a for-profit is 6%. That’s right, just a 6% difference between non-profit and for-profit. 6%, you see, is the average profit of the Fortune 500 (at least, before the latest economic unpleasantness). If every “sustainable” non-profit firm increased their prices by 6%, they too could receive all the benefits of a profit motive — efficiency and return on investment, to name two. And they could still be well-intended. Neither a “non-profit” nor a “for-profit”, but a “good-profit”.
Personally, the blurring of this distinction matters because I live in both the venture capital world and the microfinance world. I invest in technology startups in Silicon Valley. Plus I teach a microfinance simulcast to more than 20 business school campuses and I sit on the boards of directors of multiple microfinance organizations.
So now, these two worlds are colliding. Here’s why:
1) Profit. Ever wonder why there are so many conferences for microfinance? Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
The latest book by Center Managing Director Elisabeth Rhyne is due out in just over two weeks.
Microfinance for Bankers and Investors: Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of the Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid offers demonstrates that providing financial services to the poor is a viable business prospect that allows investors to be socially AND financially responsible. Elisabeth Rhyne provides the readers with a road map showing where and how businesses can invest in greater financial inclusion, guided by the stories of companies already leading the way.
> Pre-order your copy today
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