While conducting fieldwork for a microfinance organization in West Africa in 2006, Zidisha.org founder Julia Kurnia noticed something startling. Loans that were funded at zero interest by well-meaning participants at popular microlending websites were costing the impoverished beneficiaries more than 35% on average in interest and fees. The exorbitant rates were charged by the local ...
It is rare to have the opportunity to meet the people, who microfinance has helped. Usually they are only a distant face in a foreign country or a profile on a web site or on a microfinance organization’s brochure, but microfinance helps people locally here in Washington state. Join us for this rare opportunity to ...
Events, FeaturedGlobal Partnerships’ first fund provided five years of double-bottom-line returns Seattle – Today, Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based nonprofit that invests in high-performing, socially focused microfinance institutions in Latin America, announced that the cycle of its first $2 million microfinance investment fund has been completed, less than five years after the fund was closed. As ...
News and CommentaryWashington CASH & Express Credit Union cordially invite you to a Private Screening and Fundraiser for the documentary “To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America .’ Will Muhammad Yunus’s Nobel winning Grameen model succeed in the financial capital of the world? Thirty years ago a young economist in Bangladesh loaned a total of ...
EventsVentures officially opened for business on June 1st, and the buzz is beginning to build! If you haven’t yet heard about Ventures, it’s Washington CASH’s gorgeous new retail store that gives our clients and other local entrepreneurs a chance to directly sell their products and services in the marketplace. The store features the works of ...
EventsOikocredit USA and its volunteers are launching a grassroots campaign to invest in people, because we know that the world’s poor don’t lack ability – they lack opportunity. Through financing, the poor gain vital access to credit. When given an opportunity to start small businesses, our borrowers in the poorest regions of the world thrive ...
EventsBolivian microloan officer Justiniano Osco visits 20 meetings every week, with some requiring a two-and-a-half-hour ride. His dedication to visiting communities in remote regions is typical of micofinance loan officers and reflects a key difference between microfinance institutions and traditional banks.
News and Commentary, TravelOnce a quarter, Global Partnerships hosts breakfast, as an opportunity to spend a morning with their staff, learning the basics about their microfinance programs. The next quarterly breakfast will be held on Thursday, June 24, and they still have some open spots. Coffee and bagels will be served and there will be plenty of time ...
EventsThe Unitus staff and supporters share more than a passion for fighting poverty—many of us also share Seattle as a hometown! Join members of the Unitus team—including our new CEO, Brigit Helms—and other supporters for a post-workday gathering with light appetizers, stimulating conversation, and drink specials. This fun and informal evening will feature visiting Unitus ...
EventsBellevue, WA – On Tuesday, June 8, a crowd of 175 people gathered at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, to hear about Global Partnerships’ track record with microfinance investment funds, a business strategy that has allowed the nonprofit microfinance lender to increase its impact on people living in poverty while giving a fixed-income-return to ...
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