Grameen Foundation USA

Overview

Grameen Foundation provides support to microfinance programs that enable the poor, mostly women, lift themselves out of poverty and make better lives for themselves and their families. This support includes funding, technology, technical assistance, training, and information services to a network of 52 local microfinance institutions in 22 countries. Our work is focused in four innovative areas: supporting MFIs, harnessing the power of technology, connecting microfinance institutions with capital markets, and expanding microfinance industry knowledge.

Mission

To empower the world's poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty through access to financial resources and information. With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly women, start self-sustaining businesses to permanently escape poverty.

Program

Ranging in size from just a few hundred clients to hundreds of thousands, our partner microfinance institutions are the bedrock of our outreach to the poor. Our success is intricately tied to their impact and performance. To help them operate more efficiently and be more effective, we provide each partner with extensive microfinance program support and services that are tailored to meet their needs.
Drawing on the skills and expertise of our in-house professionals and a pool of consultants, we work with individual MFIs to develop a comprehensive technical services package, including: financing strategies that foster smart growth; training and capacity-building programs that help to expand and strengthen day-to-day operations; outreach initiatives that increase their visibility both in local and international communities. To be more effective, MFIs must also know how their products and services can verifiably help their clients to escape poverty. Grameen Foundation is helping them measure their impact and social performance with its Progress Out of Poverty Index (PPI). The PPI is a measurement tool that helps our MFIs scientifically determine their clients’ needs, which programs work best, how quickly their clients leave poverty, and what helps them to advance out of poverty faster.

Impact

By providing tiny loans of less than $200 to poor individuals, usually women, our MFI partner clients establish or expand a small, self-sustaining businesses. These entrepreneurial projects provide our clients with a steady income and ultimately helps them escape poverty. Using this microfinance model, our MFI network reaches over 2.2million poor clients worldwide, and has an estimated extended impact of 5.5million people. As a testimony to our achievements in the microfinance field, we are honored to be the recipient of several awards, including the Fast Company Social Capitalist Award, “A�? from American Institute of Philanthropy, and the Pro-Poor Innovation Award.

Countries of Operation

Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Uganda, United States, Yemen

States of Operation

New York, Texas