{"id":606,"date":"2006-12-06T18:28:34","date_gmt":"2006-12-06T18:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/?p=606"},"modified":"2011-05-13T00:13:40","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T00:13:40","slug":"unitus-reaches-1-million-of-the-worlds-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/updates\/unitus-reaches-1-million-of-the-worlds-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Unitus Reaches 1 Million of the World’s Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unitus Reaches 1 Million of the World\u2019s Working Poor<\/h2>\n
\n

Innovative approach brings life-changing loans and opportunity to 1 million micro-entrepreneurs<\/em><\/p>\n

Redmond, WA\u2014December 6, 2006<\/strong>\u2014Unitus, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to reducing global poverty by increasing access to microfinance, today announced that its worldwide portfolio of microfinance partners is now reaching more than 1 million small entrepreneurs with empowering loans. These loans of as little as $100 enable the working poor to start small businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.<\/p>\n

Based in Redmond, Washington, with an office in Bangalore, India, Unitus has developed a portfolio of 11 microfinance institutions located in India, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina and the Philippines. Using a combination of capital assistance and technical support, Unitus has helped its microfinance partners to grow eight times faster than their peers and enabled them to collectively serve an additional 800,000 clients.<\/p>\n

Said Unitus President and CEO Geoff Davis: \u201c1 million families now have access to life-changing loans that give them the chance to work their way out of poverty.\u00a0 By reaching 1 million clients in less than five years, we\u2019ve built the fastest-growing and third-largest microfinance portfolio in the industry.\u00a0 This growth is possible because of our dedicated donors who know the true power of microfinance, and the amazing entrepreneurs leading our partner organizations. We feel this milestone shows that rapid, sustainable expansion of the microfinance industry is possible. Based on our experience, we\u2019ve now set a goal of reaching a $1.5 billion portfolio by 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bandhan, a microfinance institution in West Bengal, India, is one of Unitus\u2019s fastest growing partners and exemplifies the effectiveness of the Unitus model.\u00a0 Serving just over 50,000 clients when it formed a partnership with Unitus in April 2005, Bandhan now reaches more than 369, 000 micro-entrepreneurs in one of India\u2019s poorest regions \u2013 an increase of more than 600 percent. \u201cOur partnership with Unitus has been a critical part of our growth strategy,\u201d said Bandhan CEO and Founder C.S. Ghosh.\u00a0 \u201cUnitus\u2019s financial and capacity-building assistance has allowed us to hire critical staff, improve our technology infrastructure and strengthen our relationships with banks. We are proud to be a Unitus partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Unitus:<\/strong>
Unitus is a nonprofit organization creating innovative solutions to global poverty using a venture capital model. Based in Redmond, Washington, with an office in Bangalore, India, Unitus dramatically accelerates the growth of its microfinance partners by supplying technical and financial resources that enable them to transform into profitable, large-scale, poverty-focused businesses with links to formal capital markets. Unitus currently has 11 partners in its worldwide portfolio that provide life-changing financial services for more than 1 million of the world\u2019s working poor.\u00a0 For more information about Unitus, please visit:\u00a0www.unitus.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tags: progress<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unitus Reaches 1 Million of the World\u2019s Working Poor Innovative approach brings life-changing loans and opportunity to 1 million micro-entrepreneurs Redmond, WA\u2014December 6, 2006\u2014Unitus, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to reducing global poverty by increasing access to microfinance, today announced that its worldwide portfolio of microfinance partners is now reaching more than 1 million… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_aioseop_title":"Unitus Reaches 1 Million of the World's Poor","_aioseop_description":"Innovative Approach Brings Life-Changing Loans and Opportunity to 1 Million Micro-Entrepreneurs\n\n","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}