Jackson Library

Guides

Hot Topic: Social Entrepreneurship

Armendariz de Aghion, Beatriz. The economics of microfinance. HG178.3.A76 2005  • catalog record

Counts, Alex. Give us Credit. HG3290.6.A8 C68 1996  • catalog record

Csaki, C. Reaching the Rural Poor: A Renewed Strategy for Rural Development  • view eBook

Dichter, T. Hype and Hope: The Worrisome State of the Microcredit Movement, May 2006.

Islam, Tazul. Microcredit and poverty alleviation. Green Library HG178.3.I85 2007  • catalog record

Karmakar, K.G. Rural Credit and self-help groups: micro finance needs and concepts in India. HG2051.I4 K36 1999  • catalog record

Karnani, Aneel. "Microfinance Misses Its Mark", Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2007, 34

Ledgerwood, Joanna. Microfinance handbook: An Institutional and financial perspective
Green Library. HG178.3.L43 1999 • catalog record

Rutherford, Stuart. The Poor and their Money. HD79.P6 R88 2000  • catalog record

Yunus, Muhammad. Banker to the poor. HG1552.Y86 1996  • catalog record

Zeller, Manfred and Richard L. Meyer, eds. The Triangle of microfinance: Financial sustainability, outreach, and impact. HG178.3.T75 2002  • catalog record
 

Newletters

Microfinance Gateway: Bulletins & Journals

Web Sites

The Microfinance Gateway

The MIX Market

Year of Microcredit - United Nations

Rural Finance Program - Ohio State University

UN Capital Development Fund

Directory of Development Organizations for Microfinance

Socialedge

Organizations

Grameen Bank

FINCA

ACCION International

BRI Unit Desa

Women’s World Banking

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor)

Center for Microfinance Advice and Consulting (CMAC). Dolan School of Business

KIVA

Acumen Fund

These cases are available for purchase via the Harvard Business School Publishing:

Acumen Fund and WaterHealth International: The Role of Venture Philanthropy

Source: GSB Case No: SM158
Year: 2007

Acumen Fund was founded in 2001 to provide modest amounts of capital, together with business expertise, to help build thriving enterprises that would serve large numbers of poor people. In 2004, Acumen Fund invested in the Series B round of WaterHealth International (WHI), a company that was developing approaches for providing clean water to the poor worldwide. In 2006, WHI planned to launch a major initiative in India. It also planned a new round of fundraising to support the company’s continued growth. The case provides background information on venture philanthropy, and on Acumen Fund. It also describes the problems associated with safe drinking water in developing countries, and WHI’s approach to addressing those problems.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Source: GSB Case No: SM157
Year: 2006

Founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton, Ashoka was a professional organization that identified and invested in leading social entrepreneurs globally. Analogous to a venture capital firm for social start-ups, Ashoka found and supported outstanding individuals with ideas for far-reaching social change by electing them to a fellowship of social entrepreneurs. As defined by Ashoka, the social entrepreneur had the same makeup as a business entrepreneur—in mental attitude, vision, bias for action, and skills—but the social entrepreneur sought to better the world in some way. ... Ashoka updated its mission to address the demands of a rapidly expanding citizen sector and its more than 1,500 leading social entrepreneurs. Because Ashoka’s new mission required a kind of risk-taking and willingness to “make things happen in a bigger way,” Ashoka made a commitment to hire only social entrepreneurs for its key functions. The new mission and hiring commitment attracted leading business entrepreneurs to Ashoka for the first time, triggering unprecedented organizational growth and allowing Ashoka to open for business in the U.S. This case addresses the challenges facing Ashoka in the U.S.

Corposol
Source: Harvard Business School Publishing
Year: 1998

Traces the evolution of Corposol, a nongovernmental organization dedicated primarily to lending to low-income microentrepreneurs. Its growth has made it the largest microenterprise lender in Colombia. It also diversified into other services for its clients and created for-profit and not-for-profit subsidiaries. These actions create new challenges and strategic issues for management. Teaching Purpose: To analyze the concept and complexities of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise.

The Global Fund for Women

Source: GSB Case No: SI62
Year: 2003

The Global Fund for Women was a funding intermediary that made grants to seed, support, and strengthen women’s rights groups outside the United States. These groups worked to provide women with economic opportunities and independence, improve their health and reproductive rights, increase girls’ access to education, and stop violence against females. Since its first year of grantmaking in 1988, the Global Fund had grown rapidly, awarding more than $26.8 million to over 2,500 women’s rights groups in 160 countries as of 2002. The Global Fund’s style of fundraising and grantmaking reflected its belief that local women could best determine their own needs and create solutions for lasting change. Kavita Ramdas joined the Global Fund in 1996 as its second president and CEO, succeeding co-founder Anne Firth Murray. In her new role, Ramdas instituted a number of strategic, organizational, cultural and process changes, while seeking to preserve the mission and values of the organization.

Grameen Bank

Source: GSB Case No: SM116
Year: 2003

Grameen Bank was a microcredit bank in Bangladesh, annually lending hundreds of millions of dollars to its millions of poor entrepreneurs. The bank’s managing director, Muhammad Yunus, was faced with tremendous challenges brought about by the political upheavals and natural disasters common in this economically developing country. Floods, elections, and party-backed unions have upset the natural flow of Grameen’s no-collateral lending process and he must decide how to extend needed aid without undermining the borrowers’ perception that Grameen is a bank, not an aid institution. The case covers the history of the bank from 1975 to 1998, with a concentration on events in the mid nineties.

Unitus (A): Microfinance 2.0 - Reinventing and Industry

Source: GSB Case No: SI87A
Year: 2007

Established in the mid 1970s, microfinance provided tiny loans to poor families to help them start of expand small businesses. Thirty years later, the practice had helped more than 80 million people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and grown into a global industry comprised of more than 3,000 microfinance institutions. Early pioneers of microfinance such as Muhmmad Yunnus of Grameen Bank had become celebraities of sorts, reciving score of humanitarian awards, including the the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. ... This case explores dynamics in the microfinance industry, describes the Unitus business model, and sets up an important decision facing the company: whether to expand the amount of capital it can provide to its microfinance partners through the creation of a debt or equity fund.

Unitus (B): Microfinance 2.0 - Reinventing an Industry

Source: GSB Case No: SI87B
Year: 2007

This case is the companion to SI-87A. It reveals what decision Unitus leaders made regarding whether to create a debt or equity fund to expand the capital the company could provide to its microfinance partners. It also provides updated information regarding the company's results.

Stanford MBA students' trip to East Africa. Narrated by Andy Dunn (MBA '07).

The Trip

The Kids

The Land

The Mechanics

The Slums

From Tribeca to Tanzania

Global X

Kiva Chronicles

Patrick O' on the Edge

Untangled