Dear Unitus Donors and Supporters:

This is a follow-up to our July 2 announcement that we would redirect our efforts toward new poverty alleviation strategies and initiate no new microcredit acceleration projects. We want to keep you informed about what we’re doing to fulfill our commitments. This letter serves as a stewardship report from our board to you. We are dedicated to using your generous donations appropriately and in alignment with our core mission to help reduce global poverty.

Why We Are Changing our Focus

Unitus’ mission is to reduce global poverty through economic empowerment and this is not changing. What is changing is our focus going forward.

Almost 10 years ago, Unitus identified the potential to dramatically catalyze expansion of the supply of quality microcredit, and subsequently developed and deployed a methodology we called ‘microcredit acceleration’ to realize this opportunity. We saw ourselves as a catalyst for the microfinance industry, hoping that our methods and practices would be adopted throughout the industry. We are proud of the substantial, concrete, positive impact that we’ve been able to make with your support in the operations and scale of our 22 microfinance partners, in the industry overall – and ultimately, in the lives of nearly 15 million of the world’s desperately poor.

After considerable review, we concluded earlier this year that we had achieved our specific microfinance objective: to demonstrate the scalability and commercial viability of microfinance in such a way as to influence the flow of commercial capital toward this crucial poverty alleviation tool. Our decision to curtail additional microcredit acceleration projects was based on strong recommendations from Unitus staff and other respected microfinance experts that sufficient commercial capital was available in many regions to fuel microfinance growth, with additional providers continually entering the field. Understanding this, we felt that we should be very careful in how we would continue to commit precious donor funds to a strategy that had largely achieved its intent.

This realization then necessitated a very difficult decision. Not wanting to unduly spend donor funds on unneeded administrative overhead, we felt an important obligation to scale back our internal operations while still fulfilling our existing commitments and preparing for the next phase of Unitus. This was a painful decision because it involved laying off employees, winding down projects and closing a 10-year chapter of Unitus leadership in microfinance. Painful as it was, we believed then – and continue to believe now – that it was the right thing to do. All this being said, while we tried to make this change in a completely professional and caring manner, we realize that we made mistakes in the way our change was announced and implemented. We apologize for any ill feelings or misperceptions this may have caused to those within and outside the Unitus organization. We could and should have done better executing this organizational shift.

Read the rest here on the Unitus site.

I worked with this organization (The Student Initiative) while studying abroad at LSE (Actually, I co-founded it and now am on the Board of Directors), and was wondering if you could help me pass along a great opportunity to any people, organizations, groups or listservs (particularly university student groups) who you think might be interested in microfinance and development.

The Student Initiative is a registered Charity and an incorporated non-profit ltd. company with official headquarters at the London School and Political Science (LSE) and is based and working at many leading universities.

The Student Initiative is unique because it combines academic grounding in leading university research and education with long-term work in the development sector. Its large student outreach and training enables it to identify the best individual students to work professionally on the issues and on-the-ground in development. Further information can be found on our website: http://www.thestudentinitiative.org/

The Student Initiative is currently accepting applications for new Fellows

What does it mean to be a Fellow?

The Student Initiative Fellows are the young, future and student leaders in development. An application to be a Fellow signals a desire and commitment to play a greater role in development, which The Student Initiative will facilitate. The organisation brings you closer to your ambitions of working in development in various ways. As a Fellow, you will be given guidance, advice and support for the initiatives that you propose. Also, Fellows are our priority candidates for the various opportunities (e.g. internships, research work etc) that we facilitate together with our partner institutions. You will be informed in advance of others about such opportunities, and given an exclusive application time period during which only Fellows will be allowed to submit applications for review. Being a Fellow also means that your CVs will be included in our database, which our partner organizations will have access to. This opens up career opportunities for you in the field of development. The Student Initiative also aims to help Fellows build up experience and gain more knowledge on development-related issues. Participation in the courses that we have designed, writing articles on various themes in development or the events that we organize, and even the organization of these events, are some of the avenues that you can explore you to gain an insight into various themes of development. We are also open to hearing your ideas on how you think you can deepen your involvement with development. Essentially, The Student Initiative aims to bring you closer to development-related issues and careers. If you have a passion for development, a Fellowship with The Student Initiative promises to be a rewarding experience.

To find out more about what our Fellows have done, take a look at our Get Informed pages.

How do I apply?

1. Send your most updated CV to info@thestudentinitiative.org. with the subject title ‘Fellowship Application – Your Full Name’.

2. Fill in this form with the relevant details. The deadline for applications is 15th November.

Should you have any further enquiries, please feel free to send them in to info@thestudentinitiative.org. We look forward to receiving your applications!

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