Author Archive

Measuring Social Performance: The Challenge to Microcredit’s Bottom Line

Pro Mujer Celebrates Empowering Latin American Women at Annual “Giving Women Credit” Benefit

Salma Hayek Pinault Serving as Honorary Chair at November 1st Event The Weberg Foundation and Whole Food Market’s Whole Planet Foundation Honored Pro Mujer, an international development organization that provides women in Latin America with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through an integrated approach of microfinance, business  training ...

Microfinance: Not all it’s cracked up to be… Or is it?

A Bangladesh case study on the positive and negative cultural effects of microfinance. While some tout microfinance as “the vaccine for the pandemic of poverty,” others criticize the extent of its effectiveness. In Bangladesh, microfinance has been connected to improvements in income, secondary school enrollment, food security and infant and maternal mortality rates.  Yet many ...

Trickle Up releases a powerful documentary short on the effects of poverty on the ultra poor

Trickle Up, an international poverty alleviation organization that empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, has released a documentary that profiles the impact of its work and the people it affects. “The Test of Poverty” follows two women living in extreme poverty in West Bengal, ...

International Microfinance Fellowships: Meet the Fellows Panel

The Global Business Center is celebrating International Education Week by hosting Global Biz Week at the Foster School. The week of October 18-22 will offer a variety of events for Foster School undergraduates, MBAs, faculty, and staff.  SeaMO will be co-sponsoring a microfinane event: International Microfinance Fellowships: Meet the Fellows Panel Thursday, October 21 6:00 ...

Special Screening: No Son Invisibles: Mujeres Mayas & Microfinances

TODAY There is a special screening of No Son Invisibles: Mujeres Mayas & Microfinances (They Aren’t Invisible: Maya Women and Microfinances) at the University of Washington Simpson Center For Humanities (Communications Building, Room 120) Special Guest Melissa Eidson presenting, sponsored by Department of Comparative Literature/University of Washington Interviewed: Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Follow ...

Measuring social impact & calculating social return on investment, a global perspective

The University of Washington Global Business Center is hosting an interactive event that will provide a basis for assessing and measuring the social impact of businesses in developing economies by using Social Return on Investment (SROI) and social impact analysis.  The event is open to the public but registration is required and seating is limited; ...

Local Entrepreneurs Expand Microfinance Access in Rural Ghana

Lumana, a microfinance non-profit founded by UW Husky Samantha Rayner, is now serving over 200 clients in rural Ghana. This week, the organization, which is run by a half-dozen recent University of Washington graduates, secured a coveted spot on the largest online donor network in the world: Global Giving. Lumana earned their spot in the ...

World Affairs Council of Seattle hosts LIVE Webcast of Innovation, Education, and Leadership in Africa

World Affairs Council of Seattle hosts LIVE Webcast of Innovation, Education, and Leadership in Africa: Building Blocks for Development Featuring exclusive remarks from Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation On Thursday, September 23 at 7:00 p.m. (PST) the World Affairs Council of Seattle presents leadership and alumni from Ashesi University in ...

Freedom from Hunger Shows How Banking and Healthcare Can Work Together for the World’s Poor

Davis, California — Freedom from Hunger has successfully completed a $6 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The four-year grant enabled Freedom from Hunger and five microfinance banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America to add health protection options to their financial offerings, reaching more than 1.5 million of the world’s ...