Welcome to the University of Pennsylvania's Microfinance Club
Sponsors
Platinum
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Berman
Sponsorship
As microfinance grows, partnerships and networks both between and within organizations become of paramount necessity. If your organization may benefit from working with MFC, or if you believe we can join together in a mutually beneficial relationship, we would love to hear from you.
For microfinance practitioners:
Our members are highly motivated, skilled in many different languages and come with strong background knowledge in the field with academic training from an Ivy League Institution. As such, we believe our members can benefit your organization directly, be it by means of research, grant writing or project completion. If you would like to employ our members to assist your organization, please contact us immediately.
Practitioners have taken on our members as remote/ on-site interns and data analysts. Others still have assigned a project to a team of students for completion.
For other organizations:
We seek partnerships with all microfinance-related organizations. Whether your organization is a student group at another university or an international network, MFC believes we may both benefit mutually. We encourage you to contact us.
Sponsorship:
MFC offers sponsorship opportunities to all organizations. For information covering the benefits we provide to our sponsors, please contact Vince Lee.
About Microfinance
Microfinance is an effective means to poverty alleviation. Research showed that in Bangladesh microfinance helps poor, loan-borrowing persons pull themselves above the poverty line at a rate of 48%. Those who didn’t borrow escaped poverty at a rate of only 4%.
The industry’s primary agent is the microcredit loan, a small but usefully-sized loan given to a group of poor entrepreneurs. With access to credit, these poor persons can purchase productive business capital and with it start family-run businesses, thereby generating greater incomes. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) most usually target women.
Many MFIs serve multiple social missions, including gender equality, health education, access to healthcare and sustainable development. In recent years, the profitability of these institutions has become a top priority, as not-for-profit MFIs often must lend at higher interest rates.