Grameen Foundation, founded as Grameen Foundation USA, is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 based in Washington DC that works to replicate the Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

 microfinance

Microfinance

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....

 model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions. Its CEO is Alex Counts.

History

The Foundation was founded in 1997 as a vehicle to replicate the model of Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...

 beyond the borders of Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 and increase the access of poor people to microfinance by millions worldwide. Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...

, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, sits on the Board of Directors. Current chair of the board is Paul Maritz

Paul Maritz

Paul Maritz is CEO of VMware Corporation , and a past senior executive at Microsoft.Born and raised in Rhodesia , his family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Natal,...

, CEO of VMWare

VMware

VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....

 and formerly a senior executive at Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

.

Mission

Grameen Foundation mission is, "To enable the poor, especially the poorest, to create a world without poverty."

Programs

Rather than directly administering microfinance programs, Grameen Foundation provides funds and technical assistance to local and regional microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other poverty-focused organizations. Grameen Foundation works with these organizations to:

• Help them find financing, either through loan-guarantee programs (Growth Guarantees) or direct funding (Pioneer Fund)
• Improve their IT systems, through Mifos, its open-source MIS software
• Ensure that their staff are as productive as possible, through services and consulting provided by its Human Capital Center
• Measure whether their efforts are reaching the poor, though its Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI)

Working with local and global allies, Grameen Foundation also develops and distributes mobile phone-based applications to help the poor to better manage:

• Their health, through such programs as the Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) initiative in Ghana
• Their crops, through such programs as the Community Knowledge Worker initiative in Uganda
• Their finances, though such programs as the Mobile Money initiative in Kenya

Grameen Foundation also works to help the poor receive training and benefit from small-business opportunities, further enabling them to improve their lives and break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families.

Trivia

Voted into the top 25 of world changing ideas in 2007 Members Project by American Express

American Express

American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...

 cardholders.

Further reading

• Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look; Kathleen Odell, June 2010.
• Op-Ed by Alex Counts and Jay Bakhru on increasing U.S. Aid spending on microfinance; Foreign Policy Digest, February 2009.
• Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Stock of What We Know; Nathanael Goldberg, December 2005.
• Innovate podcast series interviews Alex Counts, founder and CEO of Grameen Foundation

External links

• Official site
• Grameen-Jameel Pan Arab Microfinance Ltd.
• Grameen Foundation Australia, replicating the Grameen Bank model within South East Asia
• Nokia, Grameen Collaborate for African Villages Highway Africa News Agency, November 25, 2005. http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14836.php