Fifth Third Community Development Corp. is investing an additional $2.5 million in First Independence Bank. The move makes Fifth Third the largest investor in the minority depository institution and community development financial institution.
Back in 2007, when Matt and Catherine O’Hayer started pasture-raising hens, their thoughts were never just on the birds in their care, but in using whatever means at their disposal to affect lasting change. Directly, that meant challenging long-held assumptions in the food business – that sustainable could not mean scalable, and vice versa. That challenged Matt to pioneer an entirely new on-shelf category in the egg set – pasture-raised – and disrupt an industry that had become moribund and commoditized.
It would be difficult to think of a field that is more old-power than the arts.
Closely connected with this old-power/new-power dynamic is the way that technology has been embraced in these organizations (or not). Traditional performing arts institutions are lagging behind other kinds of groups when it comes to embracing interactive technology in their performances, particularly methods that empower their audiences.
We tried a new-power approach to philanthropy at American Express with our Partners in Preservation program, which we sponsor with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
After 11 years, this partnership has awarded nearly $20 million in preservation funding to 250 diverse historic sites in 20 National Parks, fourteen different cities, and 12 Main Street communities.
As part of Whole Planet Foundation’s annual due diligence visits to our microfinance partners around the globe, we observe the presence or absence of “responsible finance indicators” which shed light on how our partners are serving the world’s poorest people. Many of our microfinance partners use or develop strategies to inform their work, ensuring they are reaching their target populations with the services they need most.
Ten years ago, I embarked for a life-changing journey as an intern for Whole Planet Foundation with their microfinance partner, Grameen Bank, in Panajachel, Guatemala. I was 19 years old, a rising Sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin, and I had no idea what to expect. I came away completely inspired by the spark of entrepreneurship created by microfinance and found in each woman I met in Guatemala, which has led to a very interesting and crazy past 10 years as I have started my own ethical fashion business, Teysha.
Many Latin American agricultural businesses don’t survive long term. But it isn’t because they’re fighting against Mother Nature or bad crops or not enough hard-working laborers. It usually boils down to a lack of financial training and little access to credit.
Dell is teaming with the Canadian-based non-profit IMPACT to provide women in the Democratic Republic of Congo with business education focused on investing their savings into new entrepreneurship opportunities in their communities.
Teck has released its second annual Economic Contribution Report, providing information about the economic benefits generated by its activities, including payments to suppliers, employee wages and benefits, and payments to governments. The report builds on Teck’s commitment to transparency and voluntary disclosure.
Many microfinance organizations often talk about their success in terms of scale and big picture numbers: how many borrowers do they reach? How big has the loan portfolio grown? But MFIs need to answer a different set of questions to develop a more granular understanding of their impact on a household level.
