Learning about Microfinance in Seattle

It’s Friday afternoon here in Seattle, and I admit that I’m a bit fried — it’s been a long week, we’ve accomplished a ton, and I’m getting ready to take 9 hours off before getting back at it tomorrow

Before locking the door and heading home, I thought I’d share a little bit about one of my personal passions, working to fight poverty by supporting bottoms-up solutions like microfinance and microcredit lending. One of my prior careers (and that of Katie, our other resident blogger!) before starting TeachStreet was some time I spent working with an Unitus — Unitus works as a microfinance accelerator to find innovative solutions to global poverty (quite a mouthful, eh?). What that means, in English is they:

1. Work to find Banks that Serve the Poor (these are called microfinance institutions, or MFIs) with the highest growth potential
2. Establish partnerships with these banks, and invest money and consulting to help them get very big, very fast
3. Repeat Process

If you are interested in learning more about microfinance and microcredit lending, I highly recommend that you check out their website and blog (you’ll even see some photos from a trip I took to India with them in 2005!).

I thought about microfinance a little bit more today because of this week’s rash of microfinance-related posts and interactions, including:

• Guy Kawasaki blogging about an interview with Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize — Katie & I got to meet him in Seattle in 2006!)
• Mitch Ratcliffe (who I met on Wednesday night) blogged earlier this week about microfinance in the USA and Accion (commented on by Ben Bernanke)
• Dave Richards (Unitus board member and Poverty blogger) came out to support us on Tuesday night at our TiE Seattle presentation — he’s a big TeachStreet supporter, and all-around great guy (he also just got back from a Unitus trip to India and the Philippines)
• Dave McClure (TeachStreet and Unitus board member) mentioned that he’s continuing involvement with Kiva.org, an incredible team that helps connect you the lender with individual micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries — it really makes poverty personal (if that makes sense)

Finally, I had a chance to remind someone how much of a hub Seattle is for microfinance — not only are we home to Unitus (that is, if you consider Redmond part of metropolitan Seattle!), but we’ve got other industry leaders including:

• Grameen Technology Center (part of Grameen Foundation USA, a supporter of Muhammud Yunus’ original Grameen Bank)
• Global Partnership
• Washington CASH, which focuses on domestic programs for those in poverty right here in Washington, and
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which is focusing a major part of their work on Financial Services for the Poor

I’ll leave you with an video introduction to microfinance, courtesy of Unitus — we encourage you to find an organization that resonates with you, and get involved in fighting poverty!