May 17, 5-7 p.m.

Grameen Foundation Technology Center Open House

Check out our new office and meet Grameen Foundation and Tech Center leadership and staff

David Edelstein, VP of Technology Programs, Alex Counts, President and CEO, Susan McCaw, Peter Bladin

RSVP HERE

Hope to see you there!

A couple months ago I saw spam emails from Kiva, now Grameen warns about email scams using the Grameen Foundation name:

Grameen Technology is hosting a networking/informational happy hour in Seattle tonight for anybody that is looking for some last minute plans and would like to learn more about Grameen Tech’s inititiatives. This is an opportunity to mingle with microfinance and technology enthusiasts as well as Grameen Foundation staff, including Tim Wood, their MoTeCH Director, who will be briefly discussing how mobile technology is improving healthcare for pregnant mothers in Ghana.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 17th 6:00pm – 9:00pm
WHERE: Spitfire Restaurant & Bar
2219 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA

Visit the Facebook event page or email dcruz@grameenfoundation.org for more info.

Grameen (and Kiva) are trying to win the online voting campaign to win $200,000 through the Members Project® from American Express and TakePart and they need your vote! You can vote here.

And if you don’t believe me that Grameen needs your help, here are the Grameen Interns with a creative rap video…

Here’s a short video where Alex Counts from Grameen and Yeardley Smith (actress known for the voice of Lisa Simpson) visit Fonkoze in Haiti:

Mifos, an initiative of the Grameen Foundation whose goal is to help MFIs become more effective, is looking for a business intelligence software designer in Seattle WA.

“Job Summary:
We’re seeking a superstar software developer who is deeply passionate
about ending global poverty using Free and Open Source Software. Along
with the software development team, this person is responsible for the
design, implementation, and testing of the software that makes up the
Mifos platform. This person will be the technical leader of the Mifos
Business Intelligence Initiative, a project to make Mifos the best
business intelligence platform for the microfinance industry.
This position has two main areas of leadership: technical vision for
Business Intelligence, and acting as liaison for non-US teams of
software developers located in India and other places.

As a technical leader, this person will help improve Mifos production
database, data warehouse database, database metadata layer
(abstraction layer) APIs, ETL system, reporting system, and data
migration (upgrade) system. Other important tasks are:

• help analyze performance and usability of software and database schemas,
• work with the software development team to remove bottlenecks and problems,
• train software developers and consultants in best practices for developing software that accesses the database.
• work with system administrators to tune and maintain our hosted Mifos systems in Amazon EC2.”

Read more and apply here

Earlier this month, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank opened a branch in Manhattan, making it the third branch in the state of NY.  Microfinance has proven itself to work in third world countries, but there has been a lot of opposition to microfinance in the US.  Last year, Kiva opened its doors to lending in the US and was met by a lot of unhappy lenders.  However, over time, as the loans have proven to work, the anti-US lending arguments have started to subside.  Up until now, the Grameen branches in NY have been doing well, with a 99% repayment rate, which proves that it doesn’t matter what country you are from, or how big the city is that you are in, as long as you can get credit and are willing to work hard with the money you have received, you can make it anyhwere.  Dr Yunus was recently quoted as saying “I think 2008 has brought us back to that question again, the question of who is credit-worthy?” which I think is a great statement.  Lenders can choose who they lend to by using their own criteria, but it doesn’t mean they get the right to choose who is “poor” and who needs a loan.  I think that Grameen America (as well as Kiva and the other microfinance orgs) is making a great stride in microfinance in the US.

Here is a video of Dr Yunus speaking at the opening in Manhattan:

For more video about Grameen America check out their video files

Last night I went to the Seattle Town Hall where Muhammad Yunus was speaking with a couple of my friends who had never heard him speak.  I’ve seen Yunus speak before when he was here two years ago, but it is always great to hear him speak.  This time, it was a little different because he is touring and promoting his new book Building Social Business:

“In this book, Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across Asia, South America, Europe and the US. He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains how public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.”

He discussed how Grameen has three branches within New York City, how microcredit is working in the US, and how he would love NY to have zero pawnshops, which was an interesting way of thinking about alleviated poverty.  One thing that I thought was cool was during the Q&A session, someone asked about future plans and how he plans to expand Grameen, and who he will try to reach out to and partner with.  Dr Yunus said that he does not reach out to people, they reach out to him.  All of the people who want to do Social Business with Yunus/Grameen or develop a partnership all reach out to him for advice on how to get started (i.e. Danon).  Social Business, which is quickly showing up on peoples’ radars, is proving itself to work, so bigger corporations are reaching out to people within microfinance to figure out how to build a sustainable social business model.  Dr Yunus is a great speaker as always, and if he is heading through your town, I would definitely recommend going to see him.

The Grameen Foundation recently announced that it is expanding its technology for microfinance initiative, Mifos Platform, and Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) from $1.23 million of funding from the Mastercard Foundation and $500,000 from Cisco.  The donation from the Mastercard foundation will help form the Mifos Consortium which will help develop a benchmark  for successful technology that is part of Grameen’s 10 year plan of reaching 100 million new people in unserved regions. Cisco’s grant of nearly $500k will enable Grameen Foundation to integrate cost-effective avenues into Mifos, and bridge the gap between microfinance supply and demand which will help drive transformative increases in scale, innovation, sustainability, and social impact of MFIs around the world.
Read the full press release at Grameen