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Globally, one in seven people are hungry. In Africa, one in four people are hungry, and populations are only continuing to climb exponentially. However, in the same place, farmers are only producing at 40% capacity. There are a multitude of issues in food storage, irrigation, and overall infrastructure that prevent these areas from reaching full… Continue reading Closing the Gap: Issues with Global Agriculture and the Need for Increased Funding

What does it mean to be sustainable? When applied to the environment, sustainability refers to a state in which the strain put on the environment can be met without reducing its capacity to allow all people to live well into a future state. The economic definition is similar, referring to the ability to support a… Continue reading The Necessity of Sustainability

Every year, the first week of October serves as a global celebration of knowledge and understanding as the Nobel prizes are awarded in recognition of academic, cultural, and scientific advances. Past prize winners include Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and most salient to this spotlight, Muhammad Yunus. Yunus was awarded the prize in 2006 for his… Continue reading Muhammad Yunus: The Architect of Microfinance

Wisconsin Microfinance was founded in 2010 in response to the earthquake in Haiti that killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed the livelihoods of the vast majority of people in and around Port au Prince. Our original mandate for our Haitian partner was to make 80% of new loans to women.  This was in keeping… Continue reading Wisconsin Microfinance: Empowering Women

Today, there are 836 million people living in extreme poverty, and while a great amount of work has already been done to decrease that number, a lot still must be done. In 2015, under the direction of the United Nations (UN), world leaders developed a set of seventeen global goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals. … Continue reading Our Commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Hello! We are Meg DiPoto and Jane McCurry and we are the new co-executive directors of Wisconsin Microfinance! We are excited to take on this role and increase the visibility of Wisconsin Microfinance. A note from Jane: I am in my fourth year of five at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pursuing degrees in Operations and… Continue reading Introducing the New Co-Executive Directors!