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| Philanthropy |
Priming the Free Enterprise Pump
Jan Alexander
02/02/2004
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While much of the money has always come from donations, the microfinance industry has become large enough that the likes of Deutsche Bank and Citibank have found it a viable model for social investment funds. And because there are so many ways to donate to microfinance programs and so many programs (with track records that range from lackluster to excellent), many donors are becoming actively involved in field visits, like the Dallas-to-Chiapas expedition, and in efforts to build the industry further.
Among those donors is Atlanta real-estate developer Bob Pattillo, who believes capitalism is the most powerful model for mobilizing resources. Pattillo is a founding investor in Microfinance Information Exchange, otherwise known as TheMIX.org, a web-based information bank formed by a consortium of philanthropists under the aegis of the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. Another donor, Bernie Marcus, the founder of The Home Depot, gives money to the microfinance agency Accion International through his Marcus Foundation, and has sent staff members traveling to see the results in action. Donna Dubinsky, coinventor of the Palm Pilot, and her husband, Len Shustek, have donated both money and Palm Pilots, which lending officers from Accion-affiliated banks are using to speed up the loan and repayment process in remote areas. In Ecuador, Dubinsky recalls, she met an onion farmer who was a micro-borrower, and she thought he could use a handheld to check information about crop prices. "But he was mostly interested in making enough money to buy his own truck so that he could reach new markets faster," she says.
Figures on the extent to which micro-lending programs have actually alleviated poverty vary, but the sums of money going into underwriting micro-loans have become significant. Grameen Bank itself has lent $3.7 billion.
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