Grameen Foundation - Fighting Poverty with Microfinance

Grameen Foundation is a foundation working on the upliftment of the poor through micro finance.
In their own words:
"Grameen Foundation's mission is to enable the poor, especially the poorest, to create a world without poverty.
With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly women, start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. Founded in 1997 by a group of friends who were inspired by the work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, our global network of 55 microfinance institution (MFI) partners, including our Growth Guarantee partners, has touched more than 34 million people in 24 countries. Our partners reach 6.8 million clients, and in addition, we introduced and now sustain technology initiatives (Mifos and Village Phone) in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, bringing our total country outreach to 28. "
www.grameenfoundation.org

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Posted by Maverick, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:18 PM | 1 comments |

Micro Finance -- the CGAP way

“Consultative Group to Assist the Poor” or “CGAP” in short is housed at the World Bank, but operates as an independent entity.

CGAP in their own words:
“CGAP is the leading independent resource for objective information, expert opinion, and innovative solutions for microfinance. We work with the financial industry, governments and investors to effectively expand access to financial services for poor people around the world. Our mission is to help alleviate poverty by advancing access to finance.”“CGAP distributes vital industry information and research through a variety of free publications and Web sites. We work with stakeholders to set standards and identify best practices, and we provide advisory services for governments and financial institutions. Working through a network of worldwide partners, we develop innovative solutions that help microfinance to more effectively serve the needs of poor people.”

CGAP has a division of Market Intelligence which is the data hub for global trends in access to finance.
From a layman’s perspective CGAP is into Microfinance; helping the poor and needy with low rate of interest on loans and high interest rates on their savings.

www.cgap.org

Posted by Maverick, Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:54 PM | 0 comments |

Corporate Social Responsibility..

Here is an organisation that coaches people in the lines of being a Social Entreprenuer.
In their own words.....CSIM means and what it does..

The Center for Social Intiative and Management or CSIM is primarily an educational and training institute for social entrpreneurs and those who wish to take up work in the social sector as a part-time or full-time profession or as volunteers.Our goal is to promote and facilitate social entrepreneurs (SEs)within our community and work with various organizations to partner them with volunteers . CSIM also organizes workshops and courses to help people be more educated in the area of social work, social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. CSIM's main focus is to build capacity in people as well as organisations serving social causes. CSIM can provide guidance in the setting up and sustenance of small organizations. CSIM does not provide monetary assistance to anyone.
www.csim.org

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Posted by Maverick, Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:51 PM | 0 comments |

Innovators for the Public

Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.
Ashoka believes that each and everyone has a potential to change the world.
Founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton in Washington, DC, Ashoka has elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.
With their global community, they develop models for collaboration and design infrastructure needed to advance the field of social entrepreneurship and the citizen sector and they have theie presence in Environment, Health and Human Rights too.
Ashoka Fellows inspire others to adopt and spread their innovations - demonstrating to all citizens that they too have the potential to be powerful changemakers.
www.ashoka.org

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Posted by Maverick, Monday, July 14, 2008 4:05 PM | 0 comments |

Social entrepreneurship - Changing the World

This Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship provides platforms at the country, regional and global levels that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and address social problems in an innovative and effective manner.
Their Objectives as mentioned by them are :
To be the foremost organization for identifying, selecting and highlighting accomplished social entrepreneurs at the regional and global levels, stimulating productive linkages between them.
To be a driving force that builds a global community of outstanding social entrepreneurs and others interested in promoting social entrepreneurship, leveraging successes of social entrepreneurs to achieve wider impact for the public good.
To be the preferred partner for companies and social investors seeking to support social entrepreneurs around the world.
To be a global standard bearer for excellence in social entrepreneurship and innovation for the public good.

www.schwabfound.org

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Posted by Maverick, 12:20 PM | 0 comments |

Knowledge Resource Centre for Social Entreprenuers.


They support nonprofit organizations by helping them economically. They inspire innovation, creative ideas and new solution to problems. It also gives awards for social entrepreneurship; it connects social entrepreneurs with key people and resources through many academic, business and community channels. The Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs.The Skoll grant includes funding for an endowed lectureship, a director for the Centre's activities, visiting fellows and five MBA Skoll Scholarships for students who want to apply entrepreneurial strategies to effect sustainable social change. Skoll Scholars develop a plan to positively impact a specific social problem and undertake a consultancy project in social entrepreneurship. In addition to developing an innovative teaching program, the Skoll Centre engages in a range of research activities, both discrete and collaborative. The aim is to produce work that engages with theory that is also valuable to practitioners in the field, so that the Centre is a useful knowledge resource for social entrepreneurs.

www.skollfoundation.org


Blog Listings

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Posted by Maverick, Sunday, July 13, 2008 6:29 PM | 0 comments |

Vision Entrepreneurs


In 1999, Jordan co-founded Scojo Vision LLC, a leading designer and distributor of high-end reading glasses and accessories in the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan. A year later, he and his partner designated 5% of the company's profits to fund the Scojo Foundation, a social enterprise that trains entrepreneurs in developing countries to give eye screenings and sell low-cost reading glasses in their communities. His innovative model allows thousands of people in developing countries the gift of sight so they can continue working and contributing to their communities. In turn, Scojo provides entrepreneurial opportunities for the people who distribute and sell the reading glasses in countries like India, Guatemala, and El Salvador.Through an effective supply chain and economies of scale, Scojo Foundation provides high-quality reading glasses, previously unavailable in the communities where we work, at an affordable price. Scojo Foundation, because of its relationship to Scojo Vision, LLC., is able to source glasses at low cost and that low cost is passed onto the Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs. The Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs, in turn, sell the glasses to customers in their communities thereby enabling the women to earn a sustainable source of income. Our hope is to keep consumer prices low enough so that everyone, regardless of their socio-economic background, can afford clear near vision and access to advanced eye care services. They aim to provide reading glasses to 1.6 billion people across the globe. In El Salvador, Guatemala and India, Scojo Foundation identifies trains and supports community-based women entrepreneurs as "Vision Entrepreneurs" to sell reading glasses. They also partner with local organizations; they as partners help local organizations by providing them loans, funds, technical assistance, data collections, etc. and in return the local organizations help Scojo foundation by providing them with weekly data reports to Scojo on sales, identify local low income women to participate in the Scojo program.
www.scojofoundation.org

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Posted by Maverick, Friday, July 11, 2008 4:51 PM | 0 comments |