The Seattle Foundation is running a region-wide giving campaign to support a range of non-profits, including many of the organizations SeaMo works with toward poverty alleviation. Please consider participating by supporting one of the following organizations: Global Partnerships Jolkona Agros International Esperanza
CGAP announces this year’s microfinance photography contest winner: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/cgap/50702/ Unitus announces its new approach: http://unituslabs.org/ And the CGAP blog has a great post about reaching the poorest of the poor with savings instruments: http://microfinance.cgap.org
ImpactAssets chose Global Partnerships as one of 50 investment funds contributing the most social and environmental value over and above the financial returns. For more information, see GP’s press release at: http://bit.ly/mjPcQb
We asked Zidisha.org, a recent entrant into the microfinance world, to provide us with an update on the last six months. Here is their report: High lender demand and lender feedback has prompted Zidisha, a peer-to-peer microfinance organization, to fine-tune its model. Zidisha uses an online model that connects entrepreneurs to lenders while bypassing intermediaries ...
Microfinance in all its forms–credit, savings, insurance–has always been a story in part about technology. Without technological advances in information management, communication, and transportation, the delivery costs of all of these financial services would simply be too high to be sustainable. As such the spread of sustainable microfinance has followed a predictable pattern: coverage has ...
Seattle-based Vittana won “Best Non-Profit Startup” at last night’s Seattle 2.0 Awards. Here’s an excerpt from the email Vittana’s founder sent out today that helps to explain why: April was our biggest month ever! Our amazing community lent more than $60,000 to more than 60 students. (Special thanks to the good folks at BEAN for their ...
Sam Daley-Harris wrote a full-throated response to the sacking of Muhammad Yunus. Worth the read. Two Steps Backward for Innovation to End Poverty by Sam Daley-Harris The deed is done. On May 5th the appellate division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court agreed that the Bangladesh Bank, the nation’s central bank, was justified in firing Nobel ...
Mother’s Day is right around the corner and Trickle Up wants you to keep them in mind when picking a gift for your mom. The Seed a Dream campaign highlights the mothers around the world who rely on microfinance to climb out of poverty. From their press release: Through the campaign, donors can make gifts ...
FMO cites Global Partnerships’ focus on microfinance-plus programs, social impact Seattle, Wash., – Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based nonprofit that invests in microfinance and other sustainable poverty solutions, and the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), a leading European development bank, announced today that FMO has invested $4.4 million in GP’s Social Investment Fund (SIF 2010). ...
Congratulations to our good friends over at Jolkona, who are doing great work in the micro-giving space (including microfinance). They just recently moved into new office space in downtown Seattle–a huge step for a fledgling non-profit.