Microfinance Week In Review: Week Ending October 22
Some of the week’s news in the microfinance, green business initiatives and the small business sector:
- Microlending Meets Credit Cards (Kiva lends in the United States through the ACCION Network- CNN (Video)
- Commentary: How Community Lenders Helps Small Businesses- Bloomberg Businessweek
- Green Rankings: U.S. Companies- Newsweek
- Landing Clients is Hit or Miss- Wall Street Journal
- Turning Business Owners into Start of Their Own Stories- New York Times
Intern (n): NOT JUST The Bottom of The Totem Pole
By Amelie Busch
Students across the country have been participating in internships since the beginning of time—perfecting the art of getting coffee, kicking the printer when it’s down, and running downtown for… more coffee.
Luckily, I’m interning at ACCION USA in New York City, where getting “cawfee” is not the major task of my day. As a new “ACCIONista” I’ve been meeting with our Microfinance Council, attending weekly marketing team meetings, interviewing clients, and uploading client stories to our Kiva page. Later this month, I’ll also have the opportunity to travel to the ACCION USA Boston office for the annual Lending team meeting.
As the Kiva Intern, I’ve spent most of my summer working with our clients and Loan Consultants to get client stories posted on the Kiva Intern, I’ve spent most of my summer working with our clients and Loan Consultants to get client stories posted on the Kiva website. Kiva’s been a great partnership for ACCION USA because it helps us lend to clients who fall just under our requirements. With the financial crisis, it’s been all about assessing our risk while still lending to eligible small businesses.
My favorite day, so far, at ACCION USA was when one of our clients, Jose, came into the office. He was meeting with his loan consultant, Elizabeth, to finalize and disburse his loan. Afterwards, I got to sit down with him and ask him about his business so that I could create his Kiva profile. It was great seeing the loan process come to life and meeting with such an inspirational micro-entrepreneur.
As an intern at ACCION USA, my experience has been eye-opening and rewarding. With the organization moving at 100 mph, like most people do in New York City, everyone plays a big role in keeping our vehicle on target. More information, trust and responsibilities are handed to me on a daily basis. With great employees, grateful clients and a fun working environment, this internship has made me feel far from the ‘bottom of the totem pole.’
Amelie Busch is serving as the Kiva Coordinator Intern for ACCION USA during Summer 2010. She is a rising senior at Elon University, studying Finance and Economics. She has a passion for microfinance and founded the Elon Microfinance Initiative – a student organization designed to promote the outreach and awareness of microfinance.
Tags: accion usa, kiva, kiva.org, microfinance, us microfinance
ACCION USA Celebrates One Year on Kiva.org!
I’m not one for remembering dates; I’ll even admit that I confuse my mom and dad’s birthdays. So when June 10th was approaching, there weren’t any plans going on to celebrate the one-year anniversary for ACCION USA’s partnership with Kiva.org.
Without further ado, a blog post to commemorate the partnership!
On June 10, 2009 the first U.S. loan appeared on the Kiva website, Elizabeth Polanco. I did my best to be the first person to lend to a U.S. entrepreneur; Maria Shriver beat me to it though!
The weeks that followed ensued passionate conversation about the need for microfinance in the United States, compared to traditional Kiva partners in developing nations. A lending team on Kiva was created to support us, check out the Happy Kiva Lenders . There were also some interesting conversations going on in the blogosphere that have helped fuel more support and awareness for microfinance globally.
Since June 10, 2009, ACCION USA has raised almost $500,000 dollars to support 95 borrowers through Kiva.org. Each of these borrowers has had a chance to share their story of entrepreneurship with the lending community on Kiva. Their Kiva profiles help generate a narrative about the successes and challenges for entrepreneurs, and the need for access to small business loans.
U.S. microfinance has only reached the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It is through partners like Kiva that we are inspired and become innovative to reach those in need. With our missions aligned, ACCION USA and Kiva will continue to grow and inspire interest in microfinance—together.
And now for the Thank You’s!
Dear Kiva lenders, we have been overwhelmed by your generosity and conviction to the mission of microfinance. Thank you for all of your support and kind words—we always look forward to hearing from you. We hope that you choose to continue supporting ACCION USA through Kiva.org.
To our clients, a sincere thank you for participating in the Kiva program—your stories are the reason that we come to work everyday!
Please take a look at our current loans fundraising on Kiva!
Tags: accion usa, kiva, kiva.org, maria shriver, microfinance, us microfinance
Story from the Field: Moped Productions
Maureen needed a microloan to help expand her media consulting and production company.
By Maika Hemphill, Loan Consultant, New York
When I first met Maureen it had been two years since she started her own business, Moped Productions, a dream realized after eight years working in video editing and production. At the time, Maureen’s sales were down due to the economy, but she knew that hiring an employee to develop a blog and newsletter would help her turn the corner. Maureen received from ACCION USA a $7,000 loan to make the hire, and her loan was posted to Kiva.org, where it was funded. Maureen’s relationship with ACCION USA led to more media coverage, and with it, increased sales. A few months later she landed a deal with a major cable TV network, pushing her business to expand further. With 40% paid down on her original loan, Maureen came back to ACCION USA in need of a larger loan to fund more projects.
Unfortunately, past family and personal matters resulted in a financial situation that was damaging to her credit, and her most recent credit did not prove she had experience handling large loan amounts. It is always tough to see cases where a client comes to us with credit issues due to circumstances that were out of his or her control. Maureen was left in a position where it would have potentially taken years to rebuild her credit to match the success of her business, impeding her ability to take on new projects. Maureen needed to partially fund her upcoming project and, in the process, improve her credit quickly to prepare for future business growth.
Through partial cash securitization of the loan, ACCION USA worked out a loan that was larger than her first. This gave Maureen the chance to pay off a larger loan amount and prove she could handle higher amounts of debt. Now her business’ credit is quickly catching up to its revenues. I worked for nearly seven hours on Maureen’s application, including the time I spent with underwriting to highlight her character and strengths. It was incredibly rewarding to find an effective solution because Maureen, like most of our clients, is a successful entrepreneur at heart; she just needed the chance to prove it.
Why I Love New York and Microfinance
From Elizabeth Bueno in New York:
Although I grew up in Queens and currently live in Brooklyn, the Bronx can feel like a world away. I find this interesting, since when I was a child I would dream of going to India or another far off country to somehow help humanity. My family never understood why I would want to go to India when I come from Colombia, a country that also suffers from deep poverty and even an internal civil war. What I’ve learned, especially living in New York, is that you don’t have to go very far to make a contribution to this world. My visit to an ACCION USA client, Leopoldina, was a reminder of that fact.
As the Kiva Intern at ACCION USA, one of my duties is to visit our clients to capture video and stories to post to the Kiva Web site. After a 50-minute subway ride, I came out from underground to the ecstatic rhythm of salsa music blasting from several cars. The smell of fried food mixed with incense burning from the local restaurant to provide a rapid awakening. I followed my Google Map and made the long walk to Leopoldina’s apartment in the public housing buildings.
Leopoldina knew that I would be making a visit to capture a video for the Kiva.org website. She greeted me very warmly and professionally. In her kitchen she had laid out a black cloth that beautifully displayed her gold jewelry. It was such an energetic environment; there were loud noises and medical equipment strewn around the house. She got right down to business and explained her hard, yet inspiring path to entrepreneurship.
Leopoldina was a factory worker. Because she is the mother of a special needs daughter, she left to be a housekeeper since it would allow her flexible hours. Only later did she decide to start up her own home-based jewelry business, using a small business loan from ACCION USA to purchase her first batch of inventory. In her eight years in business, she has become very skilled at selling. Leopoldina explained that selling her jewelry is therapeutic and lifts her spirits during difficult days. I was amazed by her knowledge of the art of sales. She beamed self-reliance.
As I sat at Leopoldina’s kitchen table, I could hear the moaning sounds of her daughter in the other room, and the neighbor’s shouting. But the sound that truly resonated was the strength and determination that I heard from Leopdoldina’s voice. “Me encanta Nueva York, mucho!” ’I love New York,’ she said. I felt a deep reminder for why I love New York, a city where immigrants like she and I can meet by happenstance and realize that we are both living our dreams.
Leopoldina from ACCION USA on Vimeo.
Elizabeth Bueno is the Kiva Coordinator Intern; take a look at the video she captured of Leopoldina during her interview for the Kiva.org website.
What Makes an Entrepreneur an Entrepreneur?
ACCION USA borrower Frederick at his emissions testing center.
“The driving need isn’t different, and the dreams aren’t different, and the final outcomes may be influenced by different factors, but in essence [U.S. and international borrowers] aren’t different,” said Gina Harman, ACCION USA’s CEO, shortly before the organization formed its groundbreaking partnership with Kiva, regarded primarily for its work in the developing world. She stressed the importance of conveying what a massive change small business ownership can mean for a client – “it’s about the human desire to provide, and the devotion to doing whatever has to be done to make it work.”
Her words describe exactly what I’ve been experiencing for the last few weeks, as I meet with clients and hear stories revealing their drive for success. I know if I had a business idea that my local bank didn’t seem to believe in enough to give me a loan, I would probably just resign myself to thinking it was harebrained in the first place and call it a day. ACCION USA borrowers do just the opposite—when they are turned down by a bank, they come to us instead.
Just last week I spoke with Frederick, an ACCION USA borrower who had tired of working for government agencies as a fire inspector and dreamed of starting his own emissions inspection business. After he told me he was turned down by a bank before he came to ACCION USA, I asked him why he was so devoted to starting his own business.
“What makes you happy?” I asked him.
“Giving others the best service I can,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t do that unless I was working for myself.”
How often do we complain about our lack of professional fulfillment without attempting to do something about it? When people like Frederick share their stories and express the devotion with which they tackle, as Gina said, “whatever has to be done,” it should make us all reflect on the choices we have to pursue our own ambitions.
Elise Tosun has a background in economics and has worked on designing financial products for farmers in India and for a microfinance investment fund in New York. She is currently the Kiva Program Intern at ACCION USA.
Tags: accion, accion usa, elise tosun, entrepreneurship, gina harman, kiva, kiva.org, us microfinance
A Mainstreet Microfinance Mission
On one of my very first missions as a Kiva Fellow, I wandered through a maze of food cart vendors searching for a borrower. A newbie to the profession, I thought his address would be enough to locate him to take a the photo needed for his profile. As anyone who has ever tried to find anything in a developing country, region, or neighborhood will tell you, I needed much more than just an address. I was surrounded by food carts in all directions, slinging everything from fruit and pretzels to dumplings and falafel. Where was I? Not in India, or Kenya, or Guatemala. No, I was in downtown Manhattan.
As a Kiva Fellow for ACCION USA, I learned that New York borrowers were more similar to international borrowers than not. If 75% of ACCION USA’s borrowers are immigrants, it’s even possible that some of them could have been microloan borrowers in their home country before applying at ACCION USA!
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary aspects of ACCION USA’s jump into the person-to-person lending market is just that: the divide between Kiva lenders and borrowers has grown much smaller. As one Kiva/ACCION USA lender recently conveyed to me, her son was inspired by Ray’s business in Atlanta. Her son receives his allowance in Kiva cash, and he is an avid lender. Seeing a successful small business being built closer to home has inspired him, and has made the other business he sees around the world that much more real and respected.
My last attempt to contact the elusive food cart borrower landed me at a hot dog cart smack dab in the spot where my guy had been 10 minutes prior. I decided to strike up conversation with his replacement.
“So where are you from?” I asked.
“Bangladesh,” he said- sounded like music to my ears. I bought the quintessential NYC treat from him, as we chatted about Muhammad Yunus and the American dream. We both concluded that New York City is an incredible and magical city. I couldn’t have asked for a better end to my Kiva mission – to learn that microentrepreneurs here in the U.S. are as inspiring and resourceful as those in the developing world.
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Erica Dorn served as Kiva’s first domestic Fellow, she now coordinates the Kiva program at ACCION USA. Learn more about Erica’s U.S. microlending adventures at Vimeo.
Tags: accion, accion usa, erica dorn, kiva, kiva.org, microfinance, Muhammad Yunus, us microfinance, Yunus