Alliance Idea

[Guest]

.

[cpbailey]

I was reading about Unitus which is an accellerator for micro-finance.  They have a different angle from Kiva, but I think it would dovetail very well.  They give grants to second tier, but solid partners (MBK in Indonesia is the only overlap with Kiva).  They work with the partners to improve their processes so that they can grow incredibly quickly.  It seems that they do a very good job selecting partners, so I see a couple ways to work this.

1.  Investigate getting partners from their list onto Kiva.  They already have had one level of screening, and they have financial backing. 
2.  Work with Unitus to have them design lending systems that are Kiva compatible
3.  Encourage them to help partners who have to wait until the first of the month to distribute loans.  Unitus could make a grant to smooth cash flow issues.
4.  Kiva could ease the transition when Unitus has finished its involvement.  Unitus brings a partner to sustainability and then moves to another partner.

Colette

[RichardF]

Great idea Colette! I hope they're already having discussions like that. 

Board of Directors

Geoff Davis | President and CEO, Unitus

Geoff Davis is President and CEO of Unitus, a social venture capital investor for the microfinance industry. Geoff has worked with microfinance programs worldwide since 1995, beginning with a program he founded in central Mexico. He was an early employee at Grameen Foundation USA, a global microfinance leader. Geoff has spoken widely on microfinance at the International Monetary Fund, Harvard, Stanford and conferences in Chile, Switzerland, Bangladesh and elsewhere. A social entrepreneur, Geoff formed several companies earlier in his career and has worked at numerous startups. He was named the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Pacific Northwest region and was named one of Puget Sound Business Journal's "40 under 40". Geoff holds a B.A. in international relations from Brigham Young University and a master's degree in development economics and public policy from Harvard University.

I outlined some of their main website links at Poverty & Microfinance.