We are delighted to invite SVMN members to a very special MicroPlace event, featuring Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and father of microfinance.
MicroPlace just turned one year old and we are celebrating! Dr.
Yunus will help us celebrate at a private event for MicroPlace
investors on Thursday, November 13, 2008 from 12:30-1:30pm at
eBay in San Jose.
We want to keep this a small intimate event, so it is open only to
investors. If you are not yet an investor and want to come to this event:
2. After you have invested, please RSVP by Friday, November 7
to rkiker@microplace.com with the following information:
First name:
Last name:
Email address:
Space is limited to one ticket per investor and will be filled on a
first come, first served basis. A few days before the event we will
email you with further information, detailed directions and
instructions.
Leveraging the MFI-client relationship to provide more than financial services
Please join us at our next SVMN meeting on Thursday, October 23, 2008 which will feature Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance.
Vikram Akula
When does it make sense for microfinance institutions to sell non-financial products and services to their existing clients? Vikram Akula will present innovations and successes in expanding the reach of the microfinance field. As Alex Counts challenged us to do at our last SVMN event, Vikram is leading the charge in thinking beyond financial services, leveraging the relationships and infrastructure that MFIs have established, to provide other services critical to improving people’s lives. Particularly interesting to SVMN and its innovative and entrepreneurial members, the work of SKS Microfinance demonstrates rapid growth and success in this area. SKS is India’s largest MFI and one of the fastest-growing MFIs in the world. Vikram will discuss his thoughts on strategies, experiences, challenges and opportunities in both providing financial services and reaching beyond microfinance.
TIME Magazine named Vikram one of the world’s most influential people of the year in 2006, he has won multiple awards for his social entrepreneurship, and Social Edge recently featured Vikram Akula in an X-Interview (September 23).
UPDATE:
While microfinance has been deemed one of the best tools for poverty alleviation, it has the inherent flaw of working on the micro, individual scale. Vikram Akula spoke about his vision to scale microfinance globally to reach the enormous unmet demand for microfinance and truly make an enormous impact in getting people out of poverty in our lifetime. Just last month, SKS added 400,000 new borrowers in India! Vikram presented on SKS Microfinance’s strategy and operations, how the MFI uses a profit model to access commercial capital, how it draws on scalable business models such as McDonald’s or Coke, and how it uses technology to vastly increase its efficiency and outreach. Vikram talked about not only providing financial services, but also leveraging the existing MFI-client pipeline to offer poor people access to non-financial services and goods at reasonable rates — a win/win/win situation for low-income consumers, SKS as an intermediary, and producers. Vikram also introduced SKS Microfinance’s Ultra Poor Program, which gives assets rather than financial loans to the poorest clients. SKS’s commercial approach is the meeting place of long-term investment thinking and social goals; what is good for clients is ultimately good business.
Vikram Akula’s presentation:
Vikram Akula talks to SVMN about how SKS is expanding the reach of microfinace (October 23, 2008)
“At the intersection of money and meaning” is the mantra for a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors. At the inaugural Social Capital Markets 2008 Conference (SoCap08), attendees will learn what works and what doesn’t in this new world of social capital and social entrepreneurs. If you are an entrepreneur who is changing the world or an investor focusing on blended value and the integrated bottom line, this conference will help you find the ideas, partners and capital you need to succeed.
Full Circle Fund is an engaged philanthropy organization cultivating the next generation of community leaders and driving lasting social change in the Bay Area. Join Full Circle Fund for an evening of inspiration and networking featuring top microfinance expert and SVMN Board Member Elizabeth Funk. This event is also a chance to mingle with Full Circle Fund members and learn more about how to get involved in Full Circle Fund.
How Muhammad Yunus, Grameen, & Microfinance are Changing the World
Please join us Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at the Intuit HQ in Mountain View for the next SVMN meeting where our speaker will be Alex Counts, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation:
Alex Counts, Grameen Foundation
Alex will discuss his new book Small Loans, Big Dreams which tells the story of microfinance through the eyes of borrowers, lenders, and leaders of microfinance. Alex will share his perspectives from the book as well as personal experiences from the early years of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, where he spent years working side by side with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner & founder of Grameen. [Note: You may purchase the book in advance from the Grameen Foundation website and bring it to the meeting for Alex to sign.]
UPDATE:
With the rich perspective of a person who has been involved in microfinance since early on and dedicated his entire career to this field, Alex Counts spoke about his professional journey, Grameen Foundation and other Grameen organizations, and the frontiers of microfinance. He told poignant anecdotes about individual micro-borrowers, reminding us of the real, daily struggles that the working poor face to survive. He also encouraged people to think boldly about how to leverage microfinance’s unique asset — the relationships and trust between MFIs and poor people, this already-existing ‘pipeline’ — to create greater social improvements in the near and long-term futures. The field of microfinance is far from saturated, and much more can be done to evolve the systems that have been built thus far. Alex encouraged civic groups and networks like SVMN to dedicate themselves to ethically scaling microfinance around the world.
After his inspiring and good humored speech, Alex answered questions and also spent time signing his new book and speaking with SVMN members individually.
What happens to emerging economy businesses that aren’t served by either commercial banking or microfinance? In many developing countries, large businesses have access to formal, bank-based credit and capital markets; meanwhile households and micro-entrepreneurs have access to micro-loans. This leaves a massive economic gap known as the “missing middle” in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs account for half of GDP and two-thirds of jobs in developed countries, and are potentially a high-impact, high-return investment. Please join us to hear Google.org discuss how we can drive capital to these enterprises and what lessons can be shared between the SME and micro-enterprise sectors.
