This is a summary/analysis of where US microfinance reaches. I'm profiling the organizations included below (in no particular order). I hope you find this as enlightening as I did. If you're aware of other organizations, let me know about them and I'll add them in.
- Opportunity.org - Offers microloans and services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.
- Unitus.com - Unitus, an international nonprofit organization, works to reduce global poverty by increasing access to life-changing microfinance services.
- Globalpartnerships.org - Global Partnerships currently works with 21 organizations in Latin America.
- Villagebanking.org - FINCA International provides financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs in 21 countries so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.
- Microplace.com - Owned by eBay since 2006, MicroPlace's mission is to help alleviate global poverty by enabling everyday people to make investments in the world's working poor.
- Endpoverty.org - Since 1985, Enterprise has equipped over 200,000 families all over the developing world to support themselves through their own entrepreneurial efforts.
- WholePlanet Foundation – A division of Whole Foods, provides microloans to microenterprises in ten countries. Unlike Kiva and others, it does not appear that lenders are able to choose the program or individual they would like to contribute to. Total authorized grants to partners as of October 2008 are nearly Eight Million Dollars US.
- KIVA.org – Kiva’s slogan is “loans that change lives” and is one of the leaders in the microlending community. The Kiva Web site allows loan funders to choose individual borrowers to fund, and Kiva estimates that by 2010 they will have facilitated $100 Million in microloans.
- WOKAI – Wokai, meaning “I go” in Chinese is an Oakland, CA startup and has provided just 43 loans in china, but is poised for growth—and has obtained substantial media in areas where its chapter membership is growing such as Seattle and San Francisco. Wokai reaches out to the Chinese-American community for help funding loans that recycle three times (to three different entrepreneurs) and is afterwards used for long-term lending by the lending partner in China.
- ACCION – Accion International is a long-term and global player in the microfinance world. They are active in 24 countries and the USA, and according to their Web site they have made $17.4 Billion in microloans. Their historical repayment rate is a stunning 97%.
