Banking On Change from Pilgrim Films on Vimeo.

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Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

I can across Soap Hope this evening as a result of a Tweet I received as a result of retweeting this article. Soap Hope’s business model, named “Good Returns,” really impressed me and I thought worthy of sharing — they invest 100% of their profits every year, for the full year, into anti-poverty non-profits. They chose microfinance as a niche to support and are currently partnered with 3 microfinance institutions (Esperanza International, Chiapas Project, and Plan Fund). 2009 was their first year in business, and they generated $20,000 in profits that was then loaned to their microfinance partners.

Their co-founder, Salah Boukadoum, has extremely ambitious goals for the “Good Returns” model — one billion dollars towards ending poverty. I applaud his efforts, and hope we continue to see additional entrepreneurs like him starting businesses that help alleviate poverty.

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

For those in Seattle, there are two events you may be interested in on February 18th:

Microbrews and Microfinance with Lumana (organized by SeaMO):

When: February 18, 6pm-9pm

Where: 1201 1st Avenue South Seattle, WA 98134-1238 www.pyramidbrew.com

Events Details:

• Drinks and networking with Lumana staff and volunteers

Wokai Happy Hour (in honor of the Chinese New Year):

When: February 18 ,5:30 – 7:30 pm

Where: Café Amore in Belltown, 2301 Fifth Avenue

Event Details:

• Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine and signature Wokai beverage
• Special preview of Wokai’s enhanced website
• Fun night of networking and learning

Cost is $25 per person, of which $10 will be credited to a borrower of your choice on Wokai.org.

More information about Wokai events can be found here.

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

Vittana is looking for a Marketing/PR Manager based in Seattle, with the following responsibilities:

• Shape a fun, inspiring and effective public personality for Vittana
  • Developing the right site, community and media messaging
  • Balancing many different personality requirements: fun, inspiring, humble, genuine, effective
  • Training our CEO and external-facing team members to make sure they stay on message
• Drive a regular flow of effective, meaningful media hits
  • Developing and maintaining personal relationships of trust with journalists and media outlets
  • Developing a long-term arc of stories and angles over the next year for different media outlets
  • Researching background on, approaching/cold-calling journalists and doing whatever else it takes to get the “right” story
• Improve our website product iteratively over time
  • Collaborating with our CEO, CTO and top-tier design, PR and startup advisors
  • Shaping website messaging in accordance with the public personality you’ll develop
  • Quantitatively tracking website performance and critical customer metrics: visitor-to-lender conversion rate, retention and visit frequency, website virality (k-factor)
  • Increasing said customer and conversion metrics through creativity and A/B testing
• Develop and implement a marketing strategy using both traditional and non-traditional media
  • Building out a deep, effective, sustained social media presence: Facebook, twitter, blog
  • Collaborating with our Communities Manager to develop a bottom-up marketing strategy
  • Experimenting with and developing innovative, effective non-traditional marketing tactics
  • Making it all happen — ultimately, are more students getting loans through Vittana every month because of you?
• Helping manage volunteers, bloggers, interns and (eventually) other staff
• Collaborating with our Communities Manager to develop a fun, innovative work environment
• Offloading as much work as possible from our CEO before his head explodes
• Doing whatever else it takes to get this bird off the ground

More details available here.

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

I recently received the latest Wokai newsletter and wanted to highlight the fact that they have three open positions (based in Bejing) — a lead developer, executive fellow, and a marketing director.

You can see more details regarding all three positions here.

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

I’m sure everybody knows about the major earthquake that has devastated Haiti, killing thousands of people. Over the last week I have seen support coming from all angles, from mainstream sites like Facebook, BBC, CNN, celebrities like Ben Stiller donating through their charities, to major non-profits in the area like Yele Haiti and the Red Cross.  It is great to see so many different companies and organizations contributing to help the cause.  Although the earthquake was major, it was only a little bigger than earthquakes in the US, but caused an expontentially higher amount of damange and casualties.  I think this earthquake opened peoples’ eyes about the impact that natural disasters can have on developing countries.  Similar to the Tsunami in Thailand earlier this decade, people have joined from all over to help donate money.  Although a lot of the rebuilding will be coming from the donations that people will be making, one of the next steps will be for people in Haiti to help themselves rebuild.  I think there will be a big microfinance push as things start to get cleared up in Haiti.  With all of the relief organizations helping out, it’s only a matter of time that microfinance will take over.  In the last week alone, there have been a lot of microfinance organizations that have been helping the cause.  I decided that I would share some of the ones I have heard about.

-Alex Counts from the Grameen Foundation talks about the next step to help Haiti rebuild:

-Kiva’s field partner Esperanza wrote an update:

On Wednesday,20 January, at 6:00AM a 6.1 magnitude aftershock struck Haiti (with an epicenter approximately 35 miles north of the capital, Port-au-Prince). This is the largest aftershock yet and it comes just eight days after the tragic 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the capital. As a result of the aftershock, many unstable buildings collapsed; however, we are fortunate they were empty as many survivors of the original quake have been sleeping on the streets. We ask for continued prayers and support for the people of Haiti.
In light of this disaster, Esperanza is partnering with various doctors and medical volunteers in the towns of Elias Pina and Jimani, located on the border with Haiti. Loads of water, food, personal hygiene items and medicines have been shipped to these areas. We are also working with our already established network of pastors and church leaders who are currently preparing sites in Port-au-Prince to receive aid directly into the country.
As the situation in Haiti becomes dire, we are still in need of cash donations from our partners abroad. Monetary gifts of $40 to Esperanza´s Disaster Relief initiatives will provide a family with its basic necessities (food, bottled water, healthcare kits, etc.). For more information on how to help, please contact the Esperanza Disaster Response Group at disasterresponse@esperanza.org

-Fonkoze, an MFI in Haiti, has an Earthquake News and Updates page that they are updating with information from the ground as well as some photos that their staff have taken.  Whole Foods has donated 1 million dollars to Fonkoze to help out the microfinance effort on the ground.

-In addition to MFIs and other non-profits helping the efforts, there are also local microfinance networks such as SeaMO, Seattle Greendrinks, Global Washington and Re-Vision Labs who are putting on an event here in Seattle to help raise funds and awareness about what is going on in Haiti.
You can RSVP for Washington for Haiti: A benefit to aid the relief efforts of Fonkoze on their facebook event page

Author's Website: http://www.mykro.org

Last December, Tongal held a competition where people created inspiring and creative videos to educate people how the Kiva loan process works.  Here were the top 5 winners:

1: Erik Andersson – “The Pedro Story”
2: Andre Ferreira – “You Too Can Help”
3: Kieran Ball – “From Desk to Door: Kiva’s Microloan Delivery Service”
4: Shelley Cryan – “Change a Life with a Kiva Loan”
5: Andrew Huffaker – “Kiva – Loans That Change Lives”

The contest is not over yet.  There is still a competition where the winners can still receive the “Most Viewed” Prize, so make sure that you pass along your favorite videos.  The contest lasts until 1/31

Author's Website: http://www.mykro.org

Wondering what to do next Tuesday night??? For those in Seattle, get involved in ending global poverty by joining Oikocredit USA and its community building partners, Re-Vision Labs, in the launching of a new grassroots campaign: Changing the World by Changing the Way We Invest.

OikocreditUSA is non-profit global leader in the microfinance sector that provides credit to trade cooperatives, fair trade organizations, and small-to-medium enterprises in the developing world. Re-Vision Labs is a local, mission-driven start-up offering on-line and offline community building campaigns for worldchanging projects.

The campaign will be launched at January’s Seattle Greendrinks! Seattle Greendrinks has been the premier monthly networking event for professionals interested in sustainability and global development, with regular attendance between 300 and 500 people, and attendance as high as 1,000 at a single event! This  Seattle Greendrinks will be one of the largest in history and will feature socially responsible investment.

Seattle GreenDrinks Oikocredit Kickoff Event

When?  Tuesday, January 12^th

Time? 5:30 – 9:00pm

Where? Evo at 122 NW 36th St, Seattle, WA, 98107 See map: Google map

What? Oikocredit USA and Re-Vision Labs are launching a grassroots campaign to get Americans involved in ending global poverty.

Who?  You, staff from Re-Vision Labs, and Terry Provence, Oikocredit USA Executive Director

If you’d like to learn more about what’s happening with the movement, visit our Community HUB at http://oikocreditusa.socialgo.com/.

Please come, bring your friends and family, and support!!!

Hope to see you there!!

Author's Website: http://www.mykro.org

Congrats to Casey Wilson and the Wokai team for landing an appearance on Morning Call Bloomberg this past week!! Here’s the video:

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com

Lumana Credit is conducting a holiday fundraiser – details below:

WHAT: Lumana Credit is working to raise funds to expand its microfinance program in Ghana. Give the gift of a micro loan on behalf of a friend, family member, or colleague, and they will receive a traditional, personalized Ghanaian Kente card expressing their gift of hope given to a woman in need.

WHEN: Tuesday, December 1st to Friday, January 1st 2010.

WHERE: Make your donation online at www.lumana.org

WHY: Lumana Credit provides loans and education to rural villages in Ghana with an impact that extends beyond the holiday season. Be a part of a movement to help lift people out of poverty through microcredit.

COST: Cards start at $20 and can be purchased for any denomination above that.

$20 may not go very far here in the US, but it’s quite a bit of money in Ghana. For example:

• $20—Provide a 10-day business training course to a class of 20 entrepreneurs.
• $50—Train and employ one local school teacher to teach business training courses in the community for two months.
• $100—Provide a 6-month loan for a woman to invest in her business. Each time the loan is repaid it will be passed on to another woman in need.

Hope you choose to give the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season!

Author's Website: http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com