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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. It’s time for us to finally put poverty out of business for good. [1]

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Can Impact Investing Avoid the Failures of Microfinance?

Harvard Business Review

Morgan projected up to $1T in investment would be deployed this decade — which would make impact investing twice the size of official development aid to the world’s less develop countries (as defined by the United Nations) , presuming historic levels of aid stayed constant since 2010. Lessons from Microfinance.

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Making Microfinance More Effective

Harvard Business Review

A major challenge for international development efforts is determining which financial tools provide durable buffers against such setbacks. 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.

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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. fewer children.

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Global Entrepreneurs Need New Funding Models

Harvard Business Review

For me, it has been a problem of finance until LEDFC," he says, referring to the Liberian Enterprise Development Finance Corporation that offers Liberian-owned firms desperately needed small business loans. The goal is "to develop sustainable banking products which are more accessible for qualified candidates and women in general."

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What Makes Social Entrepreneurs Different

Harvard Business Review

Social entrepreneurs have also been some of the most attentive followers of the academic debate between the likes of Mark Pitt and Jonathan Murdoch about whether microfinance really helps reduce poverty. But only to assure themselves that someone will pay enough to make the development of the solution worthwhile.

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How to Create Youth Jobs After Conflicts

Harvard Business Review

Across most developing countries, there is a model for job training where youth are assisted to acquire basic skills. Upon graduation, the governments, nonprofits, or (more recently) microfinance companies give them loans to buy tools and opens shops. Dropout rates are high; repayment rates are low.

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