College students have a reputation for being broke, yet they always find a way to buy the essentials (most often that seems to be beer). In fact, most students borrow money to pay for their education, so it seems a bit odd to consider them a lending source. Yet that’s exactly what Lend for America is doing. They’re a New Brunswick, NJ based non-profit that believes that “with the right tools, college students can change the lives of their communities’ low-income families and gain a broader social perspective.” The tools they are talking about are centered around microfinance–a way that people even on college student budgets can make a meaningful investment.
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Education doesn’t have to be expensive, but it often is. In the U.S. we have a culture of financing education for people. Parents put aside college funds, colleges provide financial aid, private organizations offer scholarships, and there are all kind of student loans available. In much of the rest of the world, education is seen as a luxury. Vittana is a Seattle, WA based non-profit that is working to change that through microfinance. They “envision a world of opportunity, where educated minds and skillful hands work together to uplift the next generation, breaking the cycle of poverty.”
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As my actions show, I’m a strong believer that entrepreneurship can solve most of societies problems. It’s amazing what you can create with your own labor and a little bit of investment. That’s why I find the microfinance movement so interesting. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t more focus on this kind of lending in the United States. Grameen America is a five-year old non-profit that is changing this. They’re based in New York, NY, and they’re aiming for “a market where any individual with a dream can receive affordable financial products regardless of income, previous credit history, education, or business experience.” Grameen America is attacking poverty head on, and it seems like they’re having some great success.
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Want to be part of the One Day, One Job/Internship team? Here’s your chance!
When I hear the word innovation, I usually think high-tech. It’s really just about finding new things that work, even if they’re old ideas. Innovations for Poverty Action is a New Haven, CT based non-profit organization that is “dedicated to discovering what works to help the world’s poor.” By using the scientific method in everything that they do, Innovations for Poverty Action is able to optimize their programs for maximum return on investment. That means they’re able to help more people with less money, which is absolutely essential when you’re fighting poverty. It’s pretty cool that they’ve been able to create a system for reliably developing new innovations.
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The last century or so has been all about mass produced goods. Everybody wants what everyone else has. If all your friends had a Chinpokomon, then you’d want one too. That’s starting to change. More and more people are interested in handcrafted, bespoke goods. Consumerism is changing, albeit slowly. Additionally, more and more people are looking to do good when they make purchases. Whether it’s wearing a Livestrong bracelet or TOMS Shoes, people like showing off their inner “do gooder.” Ahkun is a New York, NY based non-profit that serves the intersection of these two consumer trends. They “work with entrepreneurs who have received microloans” by connecting “them to the global marketplace–creating sustainable businesses and closing the gap between microfinance lenders and borrowers, consumers and producers.” In other words, Ahkun allows you to buy handmade goods from people who are doing their part to grow developing economies.
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Up to this point I’ve been able to build my business with only my own investment and a little from my family. I don’t know if I’ll ever take outside capital, but I do know that most businesses require some form of investment to get off the ground. In the United States getting capital is pretty easy—there are both equity and debt options to fund your business. In developing nations, capital isn’t nearly as free flowing—mostly because the investments are far too risky. The microfinance movement has helped, but many upstarts are too big for the kind of capital that they offer. Root Capital is a Boston, MA based non-profit that has created “a new class of capital sitting between microcredit and commercial lending, enabling rural communities to unlock wealth and build sustainable livelihoods.” They seem to be modeled after for-profit investment firms, but there investments are obviously done with a very different focus.
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It’s been quite a while since we looked at internship in microfinance. I’m not sure whether the recession has had something to do with it, but it seems that there has been a lot less buzz about microfinance over the past year or two than there was in the preceding years. Maybe it’s just me. For those of you who don’t know what microfinance is, Wikipedia defines it as “the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.” Put more simply, it’s the act of lending small amounts of investment capital to people who wouldn’t have been able to borrow money in the past. Microfinance is a great alternative to many other forms of aid, because it helps build economic foundations that respond to market incentives. MicroFinance Transparency is a Lancaster, PA based non-profit organization that is working to ensure that the field of microfinance stays true to its goals of helping to alleviate poverty. Because microfinance is unregulated and fragmented, MicroFinance Transparency acts as a watchdog that promotes transparency in the industry, while there are also other resources that help with finance like doing online trading, with resources as an online broker France that are experts in this area.
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I was lucky enough to graduate from college without having had to take out any student loans, but even if I had needed to take out a loan, at least it would have been before the “credit crunch.” These days it’s a lot harder for students to finance their educations than it was just a couple of years ago. Credit in general is extremely tight right now, and beyond that, lenders are being very picky about whom they lend to. For students with no credit history, getting a loan can be a big pain in the butt. People Capital is a New York City based startup that is aiming to change that through what they call a “peer-to-peer lending platform.” They’ve developed a Human Capital Score “to assess the creditworthiness of those just starting their credit histories,” and they’re now building out a network of borrowers and lenders to bring the idea to life. It’s kind of like Kiva for education, but with a for-profit incentive keeping things efficient.
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The world of non-profits is built on fundraising. Organizations big and small take money from donors and put it to use how they see fit. The system works, but it leaves a lot to be desired. What if you want to know where your money is going and whom it is helping? What if you want to decide where your money goes? You often can’t. With San Francisco based Kiva you can. You can loan money directly to the working poor. And if you make a wise investment and the person you loan money to succeeds, you’ll get your money back and get to loan it again. You can lend money to a man who runs a food market in Togo or a woman who sells traditional coats in Tajikistan. The choice is yours. Kiva is all about “connect[ing] people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.” It’s a really simple idea that couldn’t have taken hold before the Internet. Now it’s changing the way that we think about giving through microfinance and microfunding.
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I’m not going to start an Economics debate on a Saturday morning, but I’m tempted. Trickle Up is a non-profit organization that was named as a slap in the face to the theory of trickle-down economics. Regardless of their economic philosophy, they appear to be doing great work by empowering “people living on less than $1 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life.” Trickle Up is based out of New York City, and they believe strongly in microfinance, micropreneurship, and microenterprises as being the solution to worldwide poverty. Their website does a great job of telling their story, so I recommend that you check it out to get a full feel for whom Trickle Up helps and how they do it.
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