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Innovating The Brick-and-Mortar Injustice Infrastructure

Mills Scofield

This week''s post is by Andy Posner , Co-Founder & Executive Director of Capital Good Fund ( CGF ), a non-profit microfinance organization targeting the root causes of poverty through innovative micro-loans and personal financial coaching. Grant funding, to be sure, is an option, but an unreliable one at that.

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Guest Post: An Entrepreneur's Thoughts on Market Incentives & Foreign Aid

Mills Scofield

It may seem obvious, but when I spend all day thinking what is most cost effective and what is the most efficient allocation of resources, it is easy to lose track of the human dimension of charitable giving. The entire concept of Microfiance’s social change is not built around redistributing wealth and the associated opportunity costs.

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Learning from Microfinance's Woes

Harvard Business Review

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture about microfinance, and got sucker-punched. Expecting to hear a litany of pros and cons about the business, and an exploration of good and bad models, I was instead greeted with a knockout punch: Microfinance doesn't work, at least not in the way we think it does. That's nice.

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Making Microfinance More Effective

Harvard Business Review

The Grameen model of microfinance gained a great deal of attention in the international development field after early data showed that it was associated with high repayment and low default. First, they may reduce financial institutions’ costs. Our findings are captured in a working paper which we summarize below.

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Lessons for Social Entrepreneurs from the Microfinance Crisis

Harvard Business Review

The microfinance industry has in just a few years gone from making headlines for the Nobel Peace Prize to stories about limited impact, allegedly abusive tactics, client suicides, government crackdowns, major lenders struggling with insolvency and the forcible removal of Mohammed Yunus as Managing Director of Grameen Bank.

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Servant Leadership Observer ? November 2010

Modern Servant Leader

Why Meetings Suck (Costs) & How to Reveal It. Peer-to-Peer Microfinance: A Sustainable Solution to Poverty. The Answer May Surprise You. Servant Leadership Observer – April 2011. Resources for the Beginning Servant Leader. 5 Tips for Great Meetings and The Hidden Benefits. Why Servant Leadership is the Future.

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Banking on Women and Girls: Key to Global Poverty Alleviation

Harvard Business Review

On this 100th International Women's Day , it is right to reflect on how women have become the heart of the microfinance industry. It is easy to forget that the initial motivation for microfinance roughly 30 years ago was, to a great extent, gender neutral. Microfinance is about much more than extending credit.