WE Affiliates

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WE Partners With Affiliates

Please click on the names to the left for more information on the affiliate.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS (MFIs) TO BE SUPPORTED BY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT INTERNATIONAL

Summary of Most Important Criteria

Detailed Criteria

  1. Clients currently, previously, and to-be served:
    1. Percent women
    2. Poverty level. Preference would be given to MFIs (microfinance institutions) targeting the poorest of the poor; i.e., those who are among the bottom half living below their nation’s poverty line. Also eligible would be those MFIs who target people living on less than $2 per day.
    3. Numbers of women served. Numbers are sufficiently large to impact one or more rural or urban communities and to achieve some economies of scale but not so large that WE donations will not have a significant impact.
  2. MFI is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
  3. Vision, mission, and goals of the MFI and congruity with WE’s vision, mission, and goals.
  4. Management and organizational structure of the MFI:
    1. On-site management – manager, accountants, loan officers/promoters
    2. Direction and oversight by Board
    3. Qualifications and diversity of Board members
    4. Oversight and/or technical/managerial/financial assistance from a large, well-established organization (e.g., Grameen Foundation USA)
    5. Program, budgetary, and personnal planning
    6. Program management
    7. Financial management
    8. Record management
    9. Sound microfinance practices
    10. Flexibility and adaptability to meet changing program and client needs
    11. Transparency and openness of operations
  5. Programs and services
    1. Interest rate is preferably at the lower end of MFIs and at most in the middle range.
    2. Client-focused
    3. Training programs for clients
    4. Communication and follow up with clients to help them succeed
    5. Does the MFI do more than offer loans? For example, does it provide
      • A safe place to deposit and save funds
      • Money transfer mechanisms
      • Health screening and basic care
      • Assistance with children’s education
      • Crop and/or life insurance
    6. Type of MFI: will MFIs that have a profit-making component be eligible for our contributions? that make loans to individuals? that may require collateral for loans?
    7. Sustainability of operations and services during and after a disaster. Is there a disaster and recovery plan?
  6. History and track record of the MFI:
    1. Length of time in operation.
    2. Accomplishments (1, 4, and 5 above).
    3. Loan repayment rates averaging 98% or above.
    4. Financial sustainability or have a reasonable timetable to achieve sustainability.
    5. After start-up period, administrative costs are a reasonable percentage of new loans. Our goal would be to support organizations whose annual administrative costs are less than 25% of annual new loan disbursements.
    6. MFI’s relationships/partnerships with governmental, business, and community leaders and organizations in the geographic region/s being served.
    7. National and international reputation in microfinance.
    8. Excellent reviews and evaluations.
    9. MFI does social-impact analysis and social performance monitoring.
  7. Potential for good communications and relationships between WE and MFI management and between WE and the MFI’s women clients. Responsiveness of the MFI to WE’s requests for information and MFI documents.
  8. Geographic diversity of MFIs WE is supporting. For example, we will want to support one or more MFIs in the U.S. as well as outside the U.S., we will likely want to target at least one MFI in Africa which has the largest percentage of very poor people, and we will likely not want to support MFIs only in one country, such as Mexico.
  9. Purpose for which WE’s contributions will be used (e.g., loans only, combination of loans, administration, and special one-time needs), and potential for significant impact of WE’s contributions.
  10. Appropriateness to the economic, political, and social context of the local area. We’ll try to get an understanding of this, preferably with the assistance of an academic who specializes in the area. We need to try to identify and take into consideration possible unintended consequences.

GDLF
Grameen de la Frontera

IRC
Int'l Rescue Committee

AF
Adelante Foundation

AWFFI
African Woman Food Farmer Initiative