Why I Believe in Microfinance

Around the world, there are thousands upon thousands of charities doing wonderful work for worthy causes. There is never a shortage of need. In almost every community, both local and global, there is work that needs to be done. However, because of the ubiquity of need, there also tend to be similarities between the way… Continue reading Why I Believe in Microfinance

Logistics of Microfinance: The How

In this blog, we often write about the benefits that microfinance is able to offer to communities to fight poverty, balance gender disparities, avoid environmental degradation, etc. However, the logistics of how microfinance itself functions is sometimes lost in the margins. To understand any story, one must always start at the beginning. Microfinance was first… Continue reading Logistics of Microfinance: The How

Overcrowding and Underfunding: Microfinance and Slowing Urban Concentration

Around 75% of the developing world’s poor still live in rural areas. However, urban growth in these same countries accounts for much of the United Nation’s predicted global population increases. Not only are these levels of urban migration increasing every year, but the rates are becoming more and more unsustainable. As these megacities continue to… Continue reading Overcrowding and Underfunding: Microfinance and Slowing Urban Concentration

The Role of Microfinance in Mitigating Gender Inquality

One of the main pillars of microfinance is its focus on women. In terms of financial institutions, microfinance stands alone in its prioritization of the economic health of women. In fact, over 80% of all microloans are afforded to women. In a world where few options exist for women to lift themselves out of poverty,… Continue reading The Role of Microfinance in Mitigating Gender Inquality

Donor Spotlight: Ruth Ohlrogge

As we begin to recognize more and more of our donors for the integral help that they provide in assisting our programs and our mission, we would like to recognize one person who has an intensely personal connection to Wisconsin Microfinance: Ruth Ohlrogge. A Madisonian through and through, Ruth grew up just outside of Madison,… Continue reading Donor Spotlight: Ruth Ohlrogge

The Problem With Predatory Lenders and The Microfinance Solution

Many times on this blog, we have brought up microfinance’s role in breaking the “cycle of poverty.” We place a great deal of importance on this issue as the repetitive nature of poverty means that breaking the chain for one person can mean that their entire family will not be brought back into that vicious… Continue reading The Problem With Predatory Lenders and The Microfinance Solution

Microfinance and the Environment: Where Responsibility Meets Sustainability

Usually, business development and environmental health are talked about as being mutually exclusive entities. Stories of clear-cutting rainforest for soybeans and livestock or mountaintop removal mines in West Virginia certainly reflect a reality in which, too frequently, short-term profits spell the death of entire ecosystems. Of the world’s 1.3 people living in extreme poverty (less… Continue reading Microfinance and the Environment: Where Responsibility Meets Sustainability