Calvert Giving Fund
Philanthropy News Digest
January 31, 2008
Calvert Foundation Receives $16 Million for Microfinance Initiative
The Calvert Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland, has announced grants totaling $16 million from several funders, which have enabled it to become an issuer on MicroPlace, a subsidiary of eBay. The foundation is using funds generated from the sale of securities on MicroPlace, a dealer-broker, to support microfinance institutions targeted by investors online.
To defray start-up expenses and establish a risk-capital pool to protect microfinance investors, the Calvert Foundation secured front-end grants and program-related investments from the Omidyar Network ($2.25 million), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation ($10 million), the Rockefeller Foundation ($200,000), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($2 million), and the DOEN Foundation ($1.2 million), which is based in Amsterdam.
Visitors to the MicroPlace Web site can purchase investments for as little as $100 from microfinance security issuers and direct the impact of their investment to a specific country or microfinance institution in the developing world. The microfinance institutions use the funds to make small loans to the working poor, who in turn use the loans to start or expand small businesses and lift themselves out of poverty. Among the top-supported projects so far are Kenya Women's Finance Trust, PRIDE Tanzania, and Pro Mujer in Bolivia.
"MicroPlace is rewriting the rulebook of how people can participate in ending poverty through the power of microfinance," said Calvert Foundation executive director Shari Berenbach. "We want to make sure that everyone understands that by teaming up with eBay, foundations demonstrate that they are committed to doing more than just talking about how to end poverty. These are the organizations that put the financing on the line, both grants and program-related investments, to make possible the groundbreaking initiatives that are attacking poverty head on."
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/
